LIVER DISEASE

HEPATITIS C VIRUS & LIVER DISEASE TREATMENT

Hepatitis C is a disease of the liver caused by one of the tiniest types of 'bugs' or microorganisms that can infect humans - a virus. The hepatitis C virus invades healthy liver cells, takes over their function and allows the viruses to replicate themselves. Over time the healthy liver cells that have been infected will die leaving behind scare tissue. This scar tissue is referred to as fibrosis. Fibrosis will eventually turn into cirrhosis if the hepatitis C is left untreated.

A virus is incredibly small and is only visible with the aid of an electron microscope. A virus is no more than a single molecule of DNA or RNA wrapped in a protein coat. DNA and RNA are the genetic molecules that constitute the blueprint for an organism's heredity and design. These genes carry the coded information that tell a cell what to do.

A virus is not a living organism, but rather a parasite that cannot perform any living functions or reproduce in self until it infects a host cell. Viruses carry only the tools they need to take over a cell. Among these basic tools for survival, the virus carries a blueprint so that it can make many more copies of itself once it has invaded a host cell.

The protein coat around a virus plays an important role in its activities. A virus must attach itself to a healthy cell before it can pass its coded RNA and DNA genetic strands into the cell. A human cell contains complex biological mechanisms to digest food, produce energy and perform other life giving functions. A virus on the other hand only exists to reproduce, they provide no life support or other useful life functions. The virus reproduces by invading a healthy cell, taking over the cells normal functions and instructs the cells machinery to reproduce more viruses.

The hepatitis C virus mainly infects liver cells. A hepatitis C virus has spikes on its envelope or outer protein coat that allows it to anchor to the outer surface of a liver cell. Once it has anchored itself to the cell it can pass its genetic material into the cell. As the viruses replicate inside the cell, the cell will begin to weaken and eventually die. Before the cell dies it may have produced thousands of new viruses which are then released from the dying cell and are then free to invade other healthy liver cells. This process can take place in a few hours. The process has to happen many times before enough damage has been done for you to feel any symptoms. It can take up to 20 - 30 years after you are infected with the hepatitis C virus before symptoms appear.

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an RNA virus. It resembles the viruses that cause yellow fever and dengue fever. There are six genetically different variants of HCV, called genotypes. These genotype families, at least six, have numerous subtypes. A patient usually is infected with only one sub-type, but each sub-type is actually a mixture of closely related viruses called quasi species. These quasi species have the ability to mutate during treatment and become resistant to the Interferon. Genotype 1b is one of the most common strains of hepatitis C in the United States and is also the most difficult to treat. Mutation of the virus is suspected as the main reason that most patients fail to clear the virus on their own. The HCV virus's ability to mutate is also the main reason the virus is so hard to eradicate. Studies have shown that treatment is less effective in patients that have large quasi species. Viruses that are not destroyed during treatment can quickly mutate and create resistant strains.

The hepatitis C virus has been in existence for quite some time, but was not identified until 1989. Prior to that time the medical community referred to the hepatitis C virus a "Non A / Non B" or NANB hepatitis. In 1989 the U.S. Centers for Disease Control identified a separate virus that was responsible for most of the NANB hepatitis, which they named hepatitis C. A screening test was developed in 1990 for the hepatitis C virus and was in use by the early 1990's to screen blood donors.

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