Broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies may hold the key to developing an effective vaccine against hepatitis C, suggests a recent review.

• While vaccines have been successfully developed to combat numerous viral infections, one has yet to be created against hepatitis C.
• The authors point out 2 reasons for the delay: The hepatitis C virus is genetically diverse, and the virus has the ability of evade the body’s immune system.
• Several broadly neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies (bNABs) are now available against the hepatitis C virus.
• These bNABs are capable of targeting conserved HCV epitopes and have been proven effective in animal studies.