How to cope with incurable hepatitis: scientists have found a solution

In a new study, scientists have discovered that chemically modified plant compounds -

rockaglates - help the body cope with the hepatitis E virus. They created a library of various chemical modifications and studied how they affect the disease.

Rockaglates are a group of plant substancesproduced by various mahogany plants. They are known to have an inhibitory effect on the proliferation of some cancer cells. Researchers have previously studied their antiviral effects against RNA viruses: for example, they can inhibit the replication of Ebola viruses, Zika viruses, and Sars -Cov-2.

A team of scientists tested these 205 substances forsubject to their effectiveness against the hepatitis E virus in cell culture. To do this, the researchers used cancer cells and HEV (Hepatitis E virus) genomes tagged with a reporter gene. Based on the amount of protein produced, the scientists were able to accurately measure how successfully the virus replicates in the presence of various substances.

The researchers used something calledhalf-maximal inhibitory concentration to understand how strongly a substance inhibits virus replication. The lower it is, the better the substance works.

Because rocaglates can also damage cells, biologists studied this toxicity in healthy pig liver cells. It turned out to be lower than in cell culture.

Hepatitis E is an inflammatory disease of the livercaused by infection with the hepatitis E virus. There are at least 4 types of hepatitis E virus: genotypes 1, 2, 3 and 4. An estimated 20 million cases of HEV infection occur annually worldwide, of which 3.3 million are symptomatic. WHO estimates that approximately 44,000 people died from hepatitis E in 2015 (representing 3.3% of total deaths from all types of viral hepatitis). There is no specific treatment that can affect the course of acute hepatitis E.

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