Repurposing the antihistamine medication chlorcyclizine may be a viable option in the treatment of hepatitis C, reported Dr. Shanshan He and coauthors.
In a study of mice carrying human hepatocytes infected with hepatitis C virus, chlorcyclizine significantly inhibited infection of HCV genotypes 1b and 2a without drug resistance at 4 and 6 weeks of treatment (P < .05), respectively, Dr. He and associates reported.
The findings suggest that the use of chlorcyclizine in treating HCV infection may “provide a more affordable alternative to the current costly options, especially in low-resource settings where chronic HCV infection is endemic,” the investigators said in the paper.
Read the full article in Science Translational Medicine 2015 at: doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.3010286.