[팜뉴스=김태일 기자]A research team at the National Cancer Center has found a clue to developing a new treatment method and treatment for hepatitis C virus, which is highly likely to develop into liver cancer.
Hepatitis C virus cannot be prevented in advance because no vaccine has been developed to date. About 100 million patients worldwide suffer from hepatitis C, which is mainly transmitted through blood. Hepatitis C is very likely to develop into cirrhosis and liver cancer if it leads to chronic hepatitis.
National Cancer Center Professor Kim Jong-heon (Chief Researcher, Cancer Molecular Biology Research Department), Researcher Seo Yuna (Cancer Molecular Biology Research Department), Professor Park Jong-bae (National Cancer Center International Cancer Graduate University Industry-University Cooperation Director), Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology Professor Cho Seong-chan (Senior Researcher) jointly The research team identified the key mechanism of virus proliferation in hepatitis C. In addition, by discovering ‘Rigosertip’ as an antiviral drug candidate, we found a new way to inhibit the proliferation of hepatitis C virus. This study related to the identification of the virus propagation mechanism of hepatitis C is an influential achievement as the discovery of hepatitis C virus won the Nobel Prize in 2020, and this study is particularly noteworthy as it is also related to microRNA (miRNA).
This study is related to microRNA, not mRNA, which is widely known as a vaccine to prevent Corona 19. In general, microRNAs, which are small RNA fragments with 21 to 23 sequences, have significantly different functions from existing RNAs and play a role in regulating protein expression by binding to mRNA. Its main function is to inhibit gene expression. However, a microRNA called microRNA-122 (miR-122), which is expressed only in the liver, has a slightly different function. miR-122 is a 22-sequence microRNA that is expressed only in the liver. It binds to the 5′ (5 prime) end of hepatitis C virus RNA to stabilize viral RNA and amplify protein expression to help the virus propagate. give. Hepatitis C virus uses miR-122 present in human liver very cleverly for virus propagation.
Specifically, the research team elaborated the upper signaling pathway PLK1 (polo-like protein kinase 1)-ELAVL1/HuR (human antigen R) mechanism that regulates miR-122, which is very essential for the proliferation of viruses. By identifying this signal transduction mechanism, ‘Rigosertip’ was discovered as an antiviral drug candidate that regulates the signal transduction process. ‘Rigosertip’ suppresses the proliferation of hepatitis C virus by inhibiting the kinase function of intracellular PLK1 and finally inhibiting the PLK1 sub-signaling process (ELAVL1/HuR-miR-122). The research team confirmed the antiviral efficacy of Rigosertip, a new drug candidate, through liver cancer cell lines and animal experiments. The discovered hepatitis C virus drug candidate ‘Rigosertip’ is currently undergoing phase 3 clinical evaluation as an anti-cancer drug candidate.
Professor Kim Jong-heon, the main corresponding author of the research paper, said, “‘Rigosertip,’ a new drug candidate discovered in relation to miR-122, will become a new therapeutic candidate for inhibiting the proliferation of hepatitis C virus, which is closely related to liver cancer in the future. “Rigosertip, discovered through this study, is an alternative to overcome RNA virus mutation resistance, which is the Achilles heel of the blockbuster drug ‘Sofosbuvir’ previously developed by Gilead Sciences. will be,” he said.
The results of this research were published as a thesis in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States (PNAS, IF 12.779), a world-renowned international academic journal, and supported by the National Cancer Center’s Public Interest Cancer Research Project, the National Research Foundation’s Senior Researcher Support Project, and the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology’s research project. was carried out The research team has currently completed a patent application for a luminescent sensor system that can sensitively detect the proliferation of hepatitis C virus and the regulation of microRNA-122 at the same time, and additional research for basic research, new drug development and discovery is also underway.