To date we have had little success preventing this disease from following its course which may ultimately cause liver failure or hepatocarcinoma.
Many infected people die waiting for liver transplants.
One method a healthy immune system uses to defend the body against viruses is to retard viral growth in cells that have been identified as infected. Similarities in nucleotide sequences between a host cell protein kinase, PKR, involved in the interferon cascade mechanism and E2, a viral gene product previously identified as a viral envelope protein, led researchers to ask if this viral protein might interrupt the IFN response. They hypothesized that the viral E2 protein blocks the IFN pathway and went on to identify where this occurs in the pathway.