Telaprevir/boceprevir era: From bench to bed and back

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects approximately 200 million people worldwide. Interferon-based therapies have dominated over the past two decades. However, the overall response rates remain suboptimal. Thanks to the tremendous effort from both academia and industry, two serine protease inhibitors telaprevir and boceprevir for treating chronic hepatitis C have finally reached the clinic. Although these compounds are only approved for combination use with interferon and ribavirin in genotype 1 HCV infected chronic patients, the management of HCV patients however is now evolving incredibly. Here, we overviewed a series of landmark studies, regarding the clinical development of telaprevir and boceprevir. We discussed the mechanism-of-action of telaprevir/boceprevir and their potential application in HCV-positive liver transplantation patients. We further emphasized some emerging concerns with perspective of further development in this field. (C) 2012 Baishideng. All rights reserved.