Scientists from Trinity College Dublin have unearthed a secret that may explain why some people are able to resist viral infections, having screened the immune systems of women exposed to hepatitis C (HCV) through contaminated anti-D transfusions given over 40 years ago in Ireland.
The extraordinary work, just published in leading journal Cell Reports Medicine, has wide-ranging implications from improving our fundamental understanding of viral resistance to the potential design of therapies to treat infected people.
Between 1977-79 in Ireland, several thousand women were exposed to the hepatitis C virus through contaminated anti-D, which is a medication made using plasma from donated blood and given to Rhesus negative women who are pregnant with a Rhesus positive fetus. The medication prevents the development of antibodies that could be dangerous in subsequent pregnancies. Some of the anti-D used during the 1977-79 period was contaminated with hepatitis C.
From this outbreak, voltaren 12.5 suppository three groups of people were identifiable: those who were chronically infected; those who cleared the infection with an antibody response; and those who appeared protected against infection without making antibodies against hepatitis C.
Cliona O’Farrelly, Professor of Comparative Immunology in Trinity’s School of Biochemistry and Immunology, is the senior author of the research article. Cliona, who is based in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, said:
“We hypothesised that women who seemed to resist HCV infection must have an enhanced innate immune response, which is the ancient part of the immune system that acts as a first line of defence.
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