File:15 Hegasy Nobel Prize 2020 HepC.jpg

"Hepatitis C virus (HCV) can be transferred by transfusion of blood or blood products as well as non-sterile medical measures. HCV infection can cause chronic liver inflammation leading to cirrhosis and liver cancer."

Components of the HCV virion depicted include lipid envelope with embedded E1/E2 glycoprotein heterodimers enclosing a capsid that contains the genetic material of the virus, single stranded RNA.

Progression of HCV infection depicted includes development of cirrhosis, followed by carcinoma. "Harvey J. Alter and collaborators demonstrated that a large proportion of post-transfusion hepatitis was not caused by Hepatitis A or B virus, but rather by an unknown infectious agent. This agent causing non-A, non-B hepatitis (NANBH) could be transferred via patients' sera to chimpanzees and showed characteristics of an unknown virus."

"Michael Houghton and collaborators identified the NANBH-causing virus by discovering its genetic sequence. In a novel approach they used serum from an infected chimpanzee to construct a phage library and screened it using antibody-containing serum from an NANBH-patient. After discovery of HCV, he developed together with HJ Alter and other collaborators the first diagnostic test for HCV."