A research group led by Associate Professor Shingo Iwami of the Graduate School of Science, Kyushu University, and Senior Researcher Koichi Watashi of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases has developed a method for determining effective combinations of therapeutic agents for hepatitis C.It can be said that this is the first achievement in Japan regarding the treatment of hepatitis C through a fusion study of applied mathematics and experimental virology.
Currently, development is progressing for hepatitis C and more than 10 drugs are available, but on the other hand, we have to find the "best combination" from many treatment options that combine multiple drugs. A new problem of not being able to become is also pointed out.
Therefore, the research group conducted an infection culture experiment of hepatitis C virus using various drugs, and analyzed it with a mathematical equation called a mathematical model based on the obtained experimental data.Furthermore, the characteristics of drug combinations were comprehensively analyzed by using computer simulation.
In this research, we developed a method to determine the strength of virus suppression effect by the combination of multiple drugs currently used for treatment, and the three-drug combination that is promising as a future treatment option is the two-drug combination that is currently the mainstream. It was suggested that the risk of developing drug-resistant virus could be significantly reduced compared to treatment.In the future, it is expected that hepatitis C treatment will be further accelerated by developing the optimal combination of drugs that complements the advantages and disadvantages of each drug.
The research results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) on February 2017, 2 (local time).
