Grant: Operating Grant

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) currently infects 250 000 people in Canada, and this chronic health problem continues to place an increasing economic burden on the Canadian health care system. The current standard therapies are extremely costly, and we have yet to understand why only certain patients attain virus clearance when subjected to therapy or, similarly, why a subset of patients exhibit an accelerated rate of HCV disease progression. This information will prove crucial to new methods of clinical management, which are required to both improve patient outcome and minimize the economic burden. It is now apparent that patients suffering from HCV related metabolic disorders, like steatosis and insulin resistance, have a poorer prognosis. Recently, the scientific community has realized the importance of biologic molecules called 'microRNAs' in disease. Our main goals are to identify HCV activated or repressed microRNAs, which help the virus hijack liver metabolism. We will also investigate the function of these key microRNAs using genomics and ultrasensitive imaging technologies. These miRNAs represent new therapeutic targets against HCV and its associated metabolic disorders. These experiments will further our understanding of host pathogen interactions necessary for HCV to propagate. As a long-term extension of this study, we aim to identify novel targets for therapy and, ultimately, and aid the development of microRNA-based prognosis which will help tailor therapeutic regimens specific to each individual HCV infected patient.