University of California, Los Angeles
$50,000 Tower Career Development Grant
Research Title:
Quercetin: A New Hepatocellular Carcinoma Prevention Paradigm
Chronic hepatitis C (HCV) is a global disease affecting more than 170 million people. Chronic carriers risk serious complications including liver cirrhosis, failure, and cancer. HCV is responsible for the recent liver cancer doubling in the U.S. Treatment options for chronically infected patients are limited, expensive, poorly tolerated, and frequently not effective.
We have recently demonstrated the flavonoid Quercetin to inhibit HCV production in our lab. This represents a promising novel antiviral target for secondary prevention and an opportunity to address the large population of patients who are currently untreated and thus at higher risk of liver cancer.