Advances in hepatitis C virus vaccines, part two: advances in hepatitis C virus vaccine formulations and modalities

Introduction: Developing a vaccine against HCV is an important medical and global priority. Unavailability and potential dangers associated with using attenuated HCV viral particles for vaccine preparation have resulted in the use of HCV genes and proteins formulated in novel vaccine modalities. Areas covered: In part one of this review, advances in basic knowledge for HCV vaccine design were provided. Herein, a detailed and correlated patents (searched by Espacenet) and literatures (searched by Pubmed) review on HCV vaccine formulations and modalities is provided, including: subunit, DNA, epitopic-peptide/polytopic, live vector- and whole yeast-based vaccines. Less-touched areas in vaccine studies such as mucosal, plant-based, and chimeric HBV/HCV vaccines are also discussed. Furthermore, results of preclinical/clinical studies on selected HCV vaccines as well as pros and cons of different strategies are reviewed. Finally, potential strategies for creation and/or improvement of HCV vaccine formulations are discussed. Expert opinion: Promising outcomes of a few HCV vaccine modalities in phase I/II clinical trials predict the accessibility of at least partially effective vaccines to inhibit or treat the chronic state of HCV infection (specially in combination with standard antiviral therapy). ChronVacC (plasmid DNA), TG4040 (MVA- based), and GI-5005 (whole yeast-based) might be the most obvious HCV vaccine candidates to be approved in the near future.