Anti-hepatitis C virus drugs:research advances / 国际药学研究杂志

ABSTRACT

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is one of global public health problems, and predominantly results in severe hepatic diseases including hepatic cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The traditional standard of care for chronic HCV is the combination of ribavirin and pegylated interferon, which is insufficient to cure the HCV infection due to the suboptimal sustained viral response and severe side effects. Recently new therapeutic approaches have been developed, including direct-acting antiviral agents (DAA) and host-targeting agents, which target essential proteins or host factors in HCV life cycle, such as NS3/4A protease, NS5B polymerase and NS5A protein. These agents exhibit high efficacy, improving safety and tolerability. Thus, the approval of the nucleotide polymerase inhibitor sofosbuvir provides a breakthrough therapy against chronic hepatitis C infection. This review describes the current different classes of HCV inhibitors during the last decades, and their chemical structures, mechanisms and related anti-viral property.