HCV infects about 3% of the world's population and most people are unaware of the infection status. About 80% of individuals with HCV infection develop chronic hepatitis and many progress to have cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). An early diagnosis in the course of the disease not only increases the chances successful treatment, but also effectively limits further transmission of HCV. A rapid test that can be used for screening purposes will further improve the diagnosis rate and effectively prevent HCV infection transmission. Unfortunately there are no rapid tests currently available for speedy diagnosis of HCV infection. QoolAbs has developed a proprietary technology platform for isolating highly specific antibodies and successfully applied these antibodies on lateral flow immunoassays (LFIA). In this study, we propose to use this technology to develop HCV core antigen specific antibodies and to produce LFIA devicews for rapid and early diagnosis of HCV.
