The Nobel Prize 2020 in Physiology or Medicine

The Nobel Prize 2020 in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to 3 scientists: Harvey J Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M Rice for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus. These three scientists have made a decisive contribution to the fight against blood-bornehepatitis, a major global health problem that causes cirrhosis and liver cancer in peoplearound the world.

What is hepatitis?

Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver.• This inflammation is caused primarily by a virus and leads to chronic liver damage andcancer inpeople all over the world.• More than a million people die of hepatitis every year, which is about as many as die oftuberculosis and HIV infection.

The three Nobel Laureates have all contributed in different ways to the identification of the unknown infectious agent :

• Harvey J. Alter : Alter realised that the unknown infectious agent could transmit the diseaseto chimpanzees and that it was a virus. The disease was given the working name of ‘nonA, non-B’ hepatitis.

• Michael Houghton : Now the unknown virus needed to be identified, and Houghton’sresearch involved a painstaking effort to isolate the genetic code of the new virus – that is,its genome. When someone gets infected by a virus, their body often forms so-calledantibodies to fight the virus. When Houghton discovered antibodies for the virus in infectedpeople, it was further evidence that it was the new virus that was causing the hepatitis. The virus was given the name hepatitis C.

• Charles M. Rice : One final question remained: could the virus cause hepatitis on its own?Yes. Rice demonstrated this by injecting hepatitis C virus into the livers of chimpanzees.The chimpanzees developed chronic hepatitis.

The discovery of Hepatitis C virus revealed the cause of the remaining cases of chronichepatitis and made possible blood tests and new medicines that have saved millions of lives.