paper in jan 2011 liver international

-Hepatitis C virus p7: molecular function and importance in hepatitis C virus life cycle and potential antiviral target-Saba Khaliq, Shah Jahan, Sajida Hassan

This is a comment on BIT225 near the end of the paper which is worth a read as a overview, although it is a bit technical. The web link is below.

"Recently, a novel small molecule, BIT225 (N-[5-(1-methyl-1H-pyrazol-4-yl)-naphthalene-2-carbonyl]-guanidine), has been reported as having a potent stand-alone antiviral activity against HCV model pestivirus BVDV. BIT225 in combination with recombinant IFNα-2b showed synergistic effect alone and in addition with ribavin, and also with two nucleoside analogues (2′-C-methyl-adenosine and 2′-C-methyl-cytidine), which are know to inhibit the HCV-RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. The strong synergistic effect of BIT225, with recombinant IFN and Rib and anti-HCV nucleoside analogues represents the future development of BIT225 or related p7 inhibitors, for use in combination therapies for HCV treatment. Moreover, BIT225 has successfully completed phase 1a dose trial in healthy volunteers concerning single dose safety and pharmacokinetics, and in phase 1b of 7-day in selected doses in HCV-infected patients, representing a potential new class of antiviral compound against HCV ".

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1478-3231.2010.02442.x/full