A lot of research is being done on to investigate the host & viral factors behind HCV spontaneous clearance i.e cytokines, T-cells, Il28B, Kupffer cells etc.
Cellular environment is very important along with genetic factors. There is research regarding transcriptional and proteomic profiling of liver.
Liver is the detoxification machinery of body. Different byproducts can play a role in spontaneous clearance i.e Arachidonic acid , urea, ammonia, antioxidants.
some of the flavonoids are shown to have anti-HCV effects, in particular Quercetin, mainly found in fruits and vegetables and grains.
The antiviral effects of flavonoids could be due to general antioxidant effect..so these compounds also have anti-inflammatory or anti-apoptotic effects...and they not specifically anti-viral. Asraf, do you have example of a particular metabolite which only has anti-viral effect (very specific?)..that would be interesting.
Since sustained hyperresponsiveness of dendritic cells is associated with spontaneous resolution of acute hepatitis C, that makes pro-prebiotics a good option.
Source:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Sustained+Hyperresponsiveness+of+Dendritic+Cells+is+Associated+with+Spontaneous+Resolution+of+Acute+Hepatitis+C
This study is on 10 patients. Sample size is not sufficient to conclude DC as ultimate resolver of acute infection.
Fair enough. Then allow me to change my answer. Since HCV core protein is a pro-inflammatory TLR2 ligand; this allows the immune system to recognise the virus and respond appropriately. Chronic infection means that the virus has managed to subvert these responses. So supplying TLR2 ligands may be a way of switching back on the responses the virus has managed to subvert. So I'm going to say...spirulina. 4 out of 30 patients cleared the virus with spirulina in this trial (and 30 is better than 10). http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-230X/12/32
Both spirulina and chlorella express PAMPs (Braun polysaccharides in the case of spirulina, and glycoprotein in the case of chlorella) that possess activity at TLR2.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3581996/
I am not saying that DCs have no role in resolution of spontaneous clearance. May be? DCs are not as effective as T cell in spontaneous clearance. Immune system is behind spontaneous clearance.
You know it is established study that the people who fail to clear HCV lacks functional T cells or have dysfunctional t cell response. there are many groups working on T cells.
Dr Paul klunerman and Dr. Ellie Oxford HCV research group have made a T cell vaccine which is in trial phase.
http://jvi.asm.org/content/79/20/12979
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/302/5645/659.abstract?ijkey=53318e76ee6b92f6d860a03f441f33d4c32da19a&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
My question is is just a hypothesis? Metabolites can play a role? because some metabolites have antiviral activity.
Ketogenic diet is antiviral, curcumin, stevia, astragalus...metformin.
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You are right, But all these results vary country to country and population to population. for example IL28 was found to be associated with IFN treatment response in HCV but here in Pakistan we have found no association.
Here this an intresting study on spontaneous clearance
Infection Frequency of Hepatitis C Virus and IL28B Haplotypes in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and Kiribati
G. L. Abby Harrison, Jan Pryor, [...], and Paul Klenerman
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