Toray Progress in Development of Hepatitis C Virus Vaccine

JCNN News Summaries - Japan Corporate News Network, Aug 27, 2007 by JCN Newsdesk

Tokyo, Aug 27, 2007 - (JCN) - Toray Industries announced on August 22 that the company confirmed for the first time in the world that hepatitis C virus (HCV) particles produced using a novel HCV culture system inactivated have the potential for practical use as an HCV vaccine in experiments using mice.

The culture system was established through the company's joint research on the development of an HCV vaccine with the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Neuroscience (TMIN), Tokyo Metropolitan Organization for Medical Research.

Since its 2005 world-first in vitro cultivation of HCV with TMIN, Toray has been seeking the potential of HCV particlest for use as an HCV vaccine in collaboration with NIID.

Based on the research it has conducted, the company has successfully increased the efficiency of HCV production by 10,000 times through the research by preparing and using a human liver cell line which produces more HCV particles than conventional cells producing HCV particles.

Moreover, the company confirmed that the HCV infection of cultured human hepatocytes was suppressed by the serum which was obtained from the mice injected with inactivated HCV particles.

Based on the confirmation of the possibility of using these inactivated HCV particles as a HCV vaccine, the company will continue to work with NIID for further research and development to optimize the HCV particles for a vaccine and establish a culture method appropriate for industrial production.

The HCV vaccine is expected to not only become a new prophylactic drug to prevent new HCV infection, but also serve as a therapeutic drug for HCV-infected people. The company hopes that this HCV vaccine will be very good news for millions of patients suffering from hepatitis C worldwide. JCN Newswire. All rights reserved. A division of Japan Corporate News Network K.K.