Therapy of chronic hepatitis C in the era of Nanotechnology: Drug delivery systems and liver targeting.

CUESTAS ML

CURRENT MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY.

BENTHAM SCIENCE PUBL LTD

Lugar: Oak Park; Año: 2017

0929-8673

Abstract: Since the British scientist Michael Houghton along with George Kuo, Qui-Lim Choo (ChironCorporation Emeryville), and Daniel W. Bradley (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) co-discoveredthe causative agent of hepatitis C in 1989, so much progress has been made for the screening of blood donorsand management of this chronic liver disease. In this regard, direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) haveemerged as the potential ?cure? of this slowly progressing and devastating disease. However, improvements are stillclearly required since the anti-hepatitis C drugs currently available in the market are so extremely expensive (i.e. $94,500for a 12-week course of treatment), that many patients will have a denied access to such drugs by their insurers.In the last few years, nanotechnology has emerged as a new platform for drug development, contributing significantly tothe improvement of the administration and delivery of many drugs. Additionally, nanotechnologies can provide uniquesolutions even in poorer societies.This manuscript reviews the current knowledges on the available anti-hepatitis C drugs and the new drug candidates beinginvestigated as well, and introduces the recent advances in nanocarrier-based delivery systems. Finally, the challenges inthe development of drug delivery systems for the targeting of antiviral drugs to the liver are also discussed.