Recent findings on an unknown canine virus exhibiting similarities with Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has boosted the hope of over 200 million people struggling against HCV. Such discovery has opened new doors to fully understand the virus, and ultimately, to develop vaccine and treatment.

HCV is considered as among the most deadly of human viruses. In the US, 3.2 million live with HCV, rendering them vulnerable to complications such as cirrhosis, gastric varices, and liver cancer. The virus is typically transmitted during repeated or significant exposure to contaminated blood or devices such as injections. People with HIV, as well as the children born to HIV-positive mothers are extremely at risk of exposure to infection.

For years, experts have tried to uncover the origin of this virus. The recent discovery came as great surprise to researchers at Pfizer and Columbia University’s Center for Infection and Immunity who were originally looking into virus outbreaks among dogs with respiratory diseases. Dubbed the Canine Hepacivirus (CHV), this virus contains Genome Scale Ordered RNA structures (GORS) which is also found in HCV.

Furthermore, it was found that the dynamics of infection and replication of CHV highly corresponds to that of HCV. With the collaboration of other experts from University of Edinburgh and Rockefeller University, this significant discovery was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last May.

“The identification and characterization of CHV signals the advent of a new, tractable animal model for hepatitis C,” said Dr. Ian Lipkin, Director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University in a press release. “This discovery provides new tools for understanding how this virus causes disease, and will facilitate drug and vaccine research and development,” he added.

Researchers believe that the virus started among dogs, and later evolved into a disease that affected humans. Such inter-species transmission is not uncommon considering that about 70 percent of infectious diseases have been found to be transmitted from animals to humans. Experts are now pushing for more expansive canine research across the globe with the hopes of eventually mobilizing antiretroviral and HCV vaccine development.

-Toni Bacala