Jazz and All That HCV: From Molecules to More Cures

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) was the ‚prima donna‘ of the Tokyo meeting. First, as the subject of international fascination, she inspired about 400 abstracts (half of the total). Then, her performances at the meeting had people sprinting to order videos to be appreciated over and over at home. What’s the source of HCV’s mystique, then? Her body? No! The novelty of her nucleic acids, once-hidden molecules now easily amplified by PCR, wore off long ago. This vertebra of her body would have bored us if it were only a structure, and not also a message. So, she is an invisible singer, and her songs have fascinated us. For example, the C100-3 melody led us to the specific detection of anti-HCV antibodies, and the 5′UTR introitus introduced universal primers for HCV-RNA detection by PCR. And now, the duet played by HCV and interferon predicts more cures of hepatitis C. Here, I have jazzed an HCV genome, in the hopes of more cures for a variety of diseases by the help of our further knowledge of their essential molecules.