25 July 2002 15:30 EST

by Bea Perks, BioMedNet News

[caption and credit]

The ApoE protein, already well-known for predisposing individuals to Alzheimer's disease (as well as heart disease), appears also to be linked to the severity of damage caused during infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV), according to new results from Ruth Itzhaki, professor of molecular neurobiology at the University of Manchester Institute of Science.

The result strongly, if indirectly, supports her previous data on the role of virus-ApoE with Alzheimer's disease and cold sores, said Itzhaki, whose data were reported last month on BioMedNet News.

In the light of earlier data showing that ApoE is involved in central and peripheral nervous system damage that HIV causes among patients not yet suffering from full-blown AIDS, Itzhaki adds, ApoE might have a much wider role - perhaps governing the extent of damage caused by yet other viruses.

The HCV finding itself is significant, she says, in that it enables prognoses for the 170 million people worldwide who are infected with this virus.

Picture caption and credit:
Helicobacter pylori, NIH.

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See also:
Hepatitis C: a review and update.
H.L. Bonkovsky, S. Mehta
J Am Acad Dermatol, 2001 Feb 44:159-82

Hepatitis C virus infection: an overview.
S.J. Hwang
J Microbiol Immunol Infect, 2001 Dec 34:227-34

How bacteria could cause cancer: one step at a time
[Review]
Alistair J. Lax and Warren Thomas
Trends in Microbiology, 2002, 10:6:293-299

Infection and heart disease: the current situation
[Research News]
Jane Bradbury
Trends in Molecular Medicine, 2001, 7:2:43-44

Hepatitis C: a review and update.
H.L. Bonkovsky, S. Mehta
J Am Acad Dermatol, 2001 Feb 44:159-82

Hepatitis C virus infection: an overview.
S.J. Hwang
J Microbiol Immunol Infect, 2001 Dec 34:227-34
 

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