Drugs

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a worldwide health problem affecting approximately 170 million people around the world, with the highest infection rates found in Asia and Africa [1]. Hepatitis C virus is a member of Flaviviridae family, that also includes other viruses like Dengue virus, West Nile virus and Yellow Fever [2], and has genome with a positive-single stranded RNA (ssRNA), having genome size of 9.6 kb. HCV genome encodes a single polyprotein precursor of 3010 amino acids, having an internal ribosome entry site at 5 ’ untranslated region (UTR), vital for the translation. The length of 5`UTR is 324-341, and it posses an internal ribosome entry site (IRES), important for Cap-independent translation of viral RNA [3,4]. This polyprotein precursor is cleaved to generate at least 10 proteins in the order of NH(2)-Core-E1-E2-p7-NS2-NS3-NS4A-NS4B-NS5A-NS 5B-COOH (Figure 1). These viral proteins are responsible for viral replication and various cellular functions [5,6]. To date, significant progress has bee