Advancement Made in Hepatitis E (HEV)

Progress is being made in the quest to better understand a lesser understood form of hepatitis: Hepatitis E (HEV). A major advancement has been made in the development of a new cell model of the virus, the findings of which were published this month. According to this article one of the reasons that research of Hepatitis E has been so limited is due to the lack of a strong cell culture model.  Now that one has been developed there is expected to be progress regarding this strain of hepatitis that results in more than 3,000,000 infections and 70,000 deaths per year.

The advancement was made because the research team was “able to increase the production of new virus particles by a factor of five to 10.”  This increase in production was achieved by identifying “a specific genetic change that leads to a significantly higher proliferation of the pathogen.” HEV transmission can occur through both blood-to-blood contact and via stool. This is particularly problematic in lesser developed parts of the world where risker blood transfusions occur and where sewage contaminated drinking water is problematic. The ability to reproduce the infectious virus at greater rates alone will not solve the problem but it will allow for more efficient and effective research. One of the reasons research on HEV has been relatively limited is that HEV infections normally resolve themselves with time, however, for those with compromised immune systems that is not always the case.

Source: Ruhr-Universitaet-Bochum. “First robust cell culture model for the hepatitis E virus.” Physics.org, 13 January 2020. https://phys.org/news/2020-01-robust-cell-culture-hepatitis-virus.html. Accessed 14 January 2020.

-Richard Hackmann