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Cholesterol-lowering drugs protect against hepatitis C
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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The hepatitis C virus enters the cell via the cholesterol receptor; it turned out that the drug ezetimibe, long used as a cholesterol metabolism regulator, is suitable for suppressing the work of this receptor.
Scientists have known for a long time that cholesterol somehow helps the hepatitis C virus penetrate cells. But how exactly this help manifests itself remained a mystery. And now a group of researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago (USA) reported that they managed to identify the "gate" through which the virus enters the cell, and this gate turned out to be the cholesterol receptor NPC1L1. It helps maintain cholesterol balance in the cell, and, as it turns out, it also opens the way for the deadly virus.
NPC1L1 is present in the digestive tract tissues of many animal species, but it is present in the liver only in humans and chimpanzees, the only animal susceptible to hepatitis C. Researchers have shown that inhibiting this receptor prevents infection with the virus. The result was confirmed in both cell culture experiments and an animal model. However, the researchers used a mouse, not a chimpanzee, to which a fragment of human liver was transplanted. The hepatitis virus affected the human liver inside the mouse, but did not affect it if the animal received NPC1L1 receptor blockers.
Moreover, it turned out that the well-known drug ezetimibe, which is used to lower cholesterol levels, can fight hepatitis C. Its action is based on blocking the work of NPC1L1. This receptor itself has been well studied in connection with cholesterol metabolism; another thing is that no one had ever thought of associating it with hepatitis. Unlike existing antiviral drugs, ezetimibe effectively prevented all six varieties of the hepatitis C virus from infecting cells.
The scientists presented their results in the journal Nature Medicine.
This drug will not help in the later stages of the disease, when the only way out is a liver transplant. However, after a transplant, it often happens that the virus penetrates into the healthy liver. Ezetimibe could be a much more effective means of protecting the transplanted liver than existing drugs, especially considering that a person takes immunosuppressants after a transplant, and as a result, his body is greatly weakened.
As for chronic forms of hepatitis, scientists believe that a drug cocktail similar to those currently used to treat AIDS should be created: in such a mixture, ezetimibe could significantly increase the effectiveness of other antiviral drugs.
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