Hepatitis C Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Hepatitis C - Essay Example However, the disease still prevails, and is among the leading causes of chronic liver disease. Hepatitis C is a disease that seriously damages the liver. Transmission of the HCV is commonly through virus-laden blood that enters a person’s circulation through blood transfusion, and breaks in the skin, mouth, and genitals. Those at high risk of getting hepatitis C are persons who inject drugs using shared needles, routinely have blood transfusions (dialysis patients and hemophiliacs) and healthcare workers who can be infected by their patients’ blood. HCV is an RNA virus; its core is made up of ribonucleic acid that serves as the template for reproduction. HCV RNA is protected by a protein layer and encased in a lipid or fatty envelope. HCV has proteins in its lipid coat have receptors on the cell surface of liver cells. The virus attaches to the receptors, is engulfed by the liver cells and released into the cell cytoplasm. Inside the cell, the viral RNA is released and takes over the cell’s ribosomes to begin the translation of protein products coded by the viral RNA. The main product is RNA transcriptase which is the main enzyme responsible for producing the complementary strand (or antisense) of the original HCV RNA. This antisense strand serves as template for producing more HCV. The virus also directs the production of capsomeres that comprise the protein coat of the virus. Several capsomeres assemble and enclose the viral RNA, which then attach to the inner plasma membrane of the liver cell. In a process called budding, the membrane engulfs the assembly and provides it with its lipid coat before releasing the new virus molecules. This is repeatedly done resulting in an endless cycle of virus reproduction leading to liver cell exhaustion, damage (cirrhosis, liver cancer) (Hepatitis C: An Epidemic for Everyone, 2008). HCV has high mutation rates, which means