Hepatitis C therapeutics: current status and emerging strategies.

Chronic infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an emerging global epidemic. The development of effective HCV antiviral therapeutics continues to be a daunting challenge owing to the absence of adequate animal models and tissue-culture systems for analysis and propagation of the virus. Despite these obstacles, inhibitors of the replicative elements of HCV, immune modulators and non-specific hepatoprotective agents are being pursued and exciting progress has been made. Successful therapeutic intervention of HCV will probably require combination approaches and new approaches, including host drug discovery targets.