Biotech Values

[gofishmarko]

re: Globeimmune

I don't know anything about them either but I'll be interested to see the results. My first impulse is to doubt they'll have much luck , since therapeutic vaccines for chronic viral disease have to overcome the same sort of tolerance hurdles as anticancer vaccines do , and , for the most part , don't.

Maybe they'll get lucky though. The core protein is one of the HCV proteins that mucks up the immune response. If their vaccine generates some sort of core-blocking effect , it might help free up the immune response in the same way that VX-950 presumably does.

In thinking about a drug regimen that gets rid of ifn/riba , I think a cocktail of inhibitors that target the HCV immune-blocking proteins ( like core , E2 , NS2 , NS5A , etc. ) might just be the ticket. It might be wise to keep an eye out for companies looking at these so we can get the jump on the next ITMN-like deal.

Here's a recent paper which discusses a couple of these proteins and effects on immune-related gene expression:

"Hepatitis C virus NS2 and NS3/4A proteins are potent inhibitors of host cell cytokine/chemokine gene expression."

http://tinyurl.com/yg3tfw