How Hep C bypasses cell defences

Thousands are infected with hepatitis C

The potentially-fatal hepatitis C virus evades the body's natural defences by slipping directly from cell to cell, scientists have found.
This could mean treatments aimed at interrupting its progress won't work as well as hoped.

University of Birmingham researchers told a Glasgow conference that this could explain the rapid spread of the virus in some patients.

The British Liver Trust said that a treatment was "desperately needed".

Viruses spread by entering cells, then replicating themselves, with large numbers of copies of the virus bursting out of the cell to start the process again.

However, some viruses don't have to leave the host cell before infecting another - they can move directly between cells.

It had been thought that Hepatitis C didn't have this ability, but the Birmingham research, using liver tumour cells infected with the virus, now suggests that it does.

"Cell to cell transmission" allows the virus to bypass some of the body's most potent defence systems - antibodies can only attack outside the cell.

This will be a disappointment for scientists who hoped to boost antibody defences in order to stop the virus in its tracks.