الفهرس 
Title: Targeting hepatitis C virus genotype
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Abstract
Background and aims: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 4a (HCV-4a) is a major public health concern, especially among the Egyptian population. It is the leading cause of chronic hepatitis, liver cancer and end-stage liver diseases. Lack of an effective HCV vaccination empowers the major role of antiviral treatment in the global eradication of HCV. The use of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) has significantly improved the cure rate in HCV infected patients. However, relapse, reduced antiviral efficacy in fibrotic, cirrhotic HCV patients, the presence of virus-resistant variants to DAAs due to selection of mutations, genotype/subtype-specific antiviral efficacy, many side events and relatively high cost led to an urgent need for discovery of new drugs to control the replication of HCV virus. In the present study, we investigated the efficacy of different compounds for their potential role as anti-HCV agents; we used chitosan nanoparticles (CNPs) as an example of polymeric nanoparticles, sofosbuvir chitosan nanoparticles as an example of using polymeric CNPs as a drug delivery system to enhance the antiviral properties of currently used chemically synthesized drug (sofosbuvir), silver nanoparticles as an example of metallic nanoparticles, and curcumin as an example of natural product. Methods: Molecular docking of sofosbuvir, CNPs and curcumin with NS3, NS5A and NS5B proteins of HCV was performed and binding energies were calculated. CNPs, SCNPs and AgNPs were prepared then characterized with Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), UV{u2013}Vis spectrophotometer