Hep C Ribozyme Patent Issued

Applied Genetics News,  March 19, 1999  

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Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (RPI, Boulder, CO) has been issued U.S. Patent 5,869,253 broadly covering ribonucleic acid enzymes (ribozymes) used to treat hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. RPI has incorporated such enzymes into its product Heptazyme, and HCV therapeutic. The patent covers chemically synthesized ribozyme,vectors encoding HCV ribozymes, and the method of using ribozymes to cleave HCV RNA.

HCV is the most common chronic bloodborn infection in the U.S., affecting more individuals than HIV, and killing 8 to 10,000 Americans annually. HCV is now in epidemic stage worldwide, with the death toll expected to triple over the next 10 to 20 years. At least 6 genotypes, with more than 90 subtypes of HCV are known, complicating the development of therapeutics. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Congress have identified HCV as a major challenge to public health. Heptazyme binds and cleaves HVC RNA specifically and selectively, theoretically inhibiting viral replication without affecting other physiological processes. Cleavage takes place in a location on the HCV RNA that is completely conserved in all known genotypes and subtypes of HCV. As HCV does not integrate in the genome, but replicates in the cytoplasm, destroying cytoplasmic RNA with ribozymes may eliminate the virus from the cell.

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