Challenges on the development of preventive and therapeutic vaccines against hepatitis C virus

Introdution: An estimated 3% of the world population is chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV), and it is a major health problem that causes cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Despite the new directly acting antivirals (DAAs) for curing chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, the control of the disease has remained a global challenge. Several reasons, including presence of asymptomatic chronic carriers, very high drug prices, and inability of all communities to access to new medications have limited the efficacy of the treatment. Therefore, developing a preventive vaccine that can reduce the likelihood of transmission, as well as a vaccine that can help improve chronic disease or prevent the progression of HCV infection to chronic and persistent infection may be a realistic goal to control the global epidemic.
Several studies have been conducted to develop the therapeutic and preventive vaccines, some of which have been investigated in phases I and II of clinical trials. This review discusses the importance of the need to a vaccine for HCV, challenges ahead, various aspects of vaccine development for HCV and summarizes some prospective vaccine approaches.