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Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt
“It has led to many people being cured of this disease quite simply and being able to continue living,” says researcher Anja Sandström of the winners’ discovery of hepatitis C.
Well-deserved Nobel Prizes that laid the foundation for the development of drugs for hepatitis C, a chronic liver disease, is how Uppsala researcher Anja Sandström describes the three researchers awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
– It has led many to be cured of this disease quite simply and to continue living.
Harvey J Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M Rice have taken a decisive step in the fight against one of our biggest global health problems: blood-borne hepatitis, writes the Nobel Assembly in its announcement of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. of this year.
– Without drugs, this led to so much damage to the liver that it could develop cancer or stop working, simply liver failure, says Anja Sandström, a senior lecturer in the Department of Medical Chemistry at Uppsala University, who researches hepatitis C.
Chronic infection
In 80 percent of cases, the disease also led to a chronic infection that slowly but surely breaks down the liver, explains Sandström. The only treatment that was around for a long time was an antiviral drug that couldn’t help everyone, and that made the patient have to stay in hospital for a long time.
– You also became seriously ill from the treatment. Now they have developed very sophisticated drugs that can help, says Sandström.
Crucial discoveries
The three researchers now receiving the Nobel Prize laid the groundwork for the development of the new drugs with their discovery of the hepatitis C virus.
– When I started as a PhD student in the late 90s, there was only one drug candidate reported in the literature, since then this field has become huge. It took almost 20 years after discovery to develop a drug, but it was worth it. And they have made basic discoveries that have been crucial to achieving it, he says.
– I think they are worthy Nobel prizes.
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