Striking At The Heart Of Hepatitis B Virus - A New Drug May Wipe-Out Infection In More Patients

Main Category: Liver Disease / Hepatitis
Article Date: 16 Jul 2008 - 5:00 PDT

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NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell clinician-scientists are studying how a new drug might be used to treat chronic hepatitis B infection (HBV). Clevudine is a compound that may provide a longer lasting viral suppression after treatment is stopped, compared to drugs currently prescribed to treat HBV. This new compound is being studied in subjects with chronic HBV who have never been treated before by one of the current standard medications for HBV. The drug blocks an enzyme called DNA polymerase in order to stop the replication of the HBV virus.

Dr. Ira Jacobson -- principal investigator of the study, chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell, and Vincent Astor Distinguished Professor of Clinical Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College -- says that the new drug may help many patients with HBV avoid a lifetime of taking drugs to control the infection.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, located in New York City, is one of the leading academic medical centers in the world, comprising the teaching hospital NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medical College, the medical school of Cornell University. NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell provides state-of-the-art inpatient, ambulatory and preventive care in all areas of medicine, and is committed to excellence in patient care, education, research and community service. Weill Cornell physician-scientists have been responsible for many medical advances -- from the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer to the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial for gene therapy for Parkinson's disease, the first indication of bone marrow's critical role in tumor growth, and, most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally-conscious brain-injured patient. NewYork-Presbyterian, which is ranked sixth on the U.S.News & World Report list of top hospitals, also comprises NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/The Allen Pavilion. Weill Cornell Medical College is the first U.S. medical college to offer a medical degree oversees and maintains a strong global presence in Austria, Brazil, Haiti, Tanzania, Turkey and Qatar. For more information, visit http://www.nyp.org and http://www.med.cornell.edu.

To read Science Briefs on the Web, please visit: http://med.cornell.edu/science.

Weill Cornell Medical College