THE POTENTIAL OF CURCUMIN IN COMBINATION WITH DIRECT ACTING ANTIVIRALS TO TREAT HEPATITIS C VIRUS INFECTION

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major public health problem and is implicated in the development of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The HCV specific direct acting antivirals (DAAs) achieve high cure rates. However, there are limitations such as high cost and lower efficacy in treating non-genotype 1 infection. Moreover, evidences show that anti-HCV treatment reduces but not eliminate HCC. Recently we demonstrated that HCV induce epigenetic signature following virus eradication with DAAs. We hypothesize that combination treatment of curcumin with DAAs will enhance HCV eradication and prevent liver diseases by reverting epigenetic modifications.

Our study demonstrate enhanced efficacy of DAAs in combination with curcumin compared to each treatment alone for the eradication of different HCV genotypes. The production of virus infection was significantly reduced upon treatment with DAAs in combination with curcumin. Eradication of HCV was observed following 5 days of combination treatment with DAAs and curcumin, where treatment with DAAs alone did not show virus eradication at day five following treatment. In addition, curcumin revert gene expression signature that is induced by HCV infection.

The findings of this study highlight the potential of curcumin to synergize with DAAs to enhance treatment efficacy and lower treatment duration that may subsequently lower treatment cost, the most important limiting factor in treating HCV with DAAs. Importantly, curcumin may revert HCV-induced oncogenenic signature and may reduce the risk for HCC development.