"Birinapant enabled the destruction of hepatitis B-infected liver cells while leaving normal cells unharmed. Excitingly, when birinapant was administered in combination with current antiviral drug entecavir, the infection was cleared twice as fast compared with birinapant alone."
Australian scientists have found a potential
cure for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections, with a promising new
treatment proving 100 per cent successful in eliminating the infection
in preclinical models.
Australian patients are now the first in the world to have access
to the potential treatment - a combination of an antiviral drug and an
anti-cancer drug - which is in phase 1/2a clinical trials in Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide.
Scientists from Melbourne's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute developed
the combination treatment using birinapant, a drug developed by US
biotech company TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals for treating cancer.
Hepatitis B is a chronic viral disease that is currently incurable.
Read more... Labels: birinapant