submitted Paper for European journal ( Bio Med Central )
Abstract
Background
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is estimated to infect 200 million individuals worldwide including approximately 17 million in Pakistan causing both acute and chronic hepatitis. The standard treatment against HCV is pegelated interferon therapy in combination with a nucleoside analogue ribavirin. In addition, several herbal extracts
and photochemical derivatives are used traditionally in the treatment of liver diseases including HCV infection. Kaolin is a group of clay minerals, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2O5(OH)4.
Results
The results showed promising effectiveness of local kaolin derived anti-HCV drugs known as cymetiron and snatinib.e, by causing 28% to 77% decrease in the HCV titer, when applied to infected Huh-7 cell lines. This study provides the basis for future work on these compounds especially to determine the specific pathway for inhibitory action in the replicon systems
Conclusions
We suggest that there could be excellent therapeutic agents in Kaolin mineral compounds for the treatment of HCV infections. However, further studies are required to identify the specific active ingredients by using various techniques. This study also provides basis for future work on these compounds especially (cymetiron)
to determine its mechanism of action in the replicon systems and clinical trials for the treatment of the hepatitis C. Moreover, this study will be helpful to explore the new horizons of the discoveries of the kaolin derivatives, which shows promising inhibitory effects against HCV
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Liaqat Ali 1, Muhammad Idrees*, Muhammad Ali1, Irshad Ur Rehman1, Abrar Hussain 1, Saima Younus1,Syed Abbas Iqbal2
1 Division of Molecular Virology, National Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology, 87-West Canal bank Road, Thoker Niaz baig, Lahore 53700, University of the Punjab, Lahore.
2 Zainab Memorial Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan
