GENERAL ARTICLE Discovery of Hepatitis C Virus ∗ 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Aunji Pradhan, Sachin Kumar Tripathi and Saumitra Das Aunji Pradhan is a PhD scholar in the laboratory of Prof. Saumitra Das, at IISc. She has been working on the role of exosomes in HCV induced pathogenesis. Sachin Kumar Tripathi is also a PhD scholar in the laboratory of Prof. Saumitra Das at IISc. He has been working on the role of lncRNA in HCV pathogenesis. Saumitra Das is a Professor of Molecular Virology at the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, IISc. Currently he is the Director of National Institute of Biomedical Genomics. His laboratory at IISc is working on various aspects of HCV. The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Harvey J. Alter of the National Institute of Health (NIH), Michael Houghton of the University of Alberta and, Charles M. Rice of Rockefeller University. The Nobel Assem- bly at Karolinska Institute has awarded them the Nobel Prize for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus (HCV). Viral Hepatitis Hepatitis refers to the inflammation of the liver, which might progress to cirrhosis and, in some extreme cases, to hepatocel- lular carcinoma. Hepatitis virus is the most common cause of hepatitis along with some non-viral factors such as alcohol con- sumption, auto-immune disease, and drugs. Five different types of RNA/DNA viruses have been reported to cause hepatitis world- wide. They contribute substantially to the global burden of hep- atic diseases [1]. According to the latest WHO Global Hepati- tis Report, hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection caused 114 million cases of acute hepatitis in 2015, while 257 million people were living with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and 72 mil- lion with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection that year. Due to their capacity to establish chronic infections, HBV and HCV are the two major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide with 1.34 million deaths reported in 2015, a 63% increase from 1990, mainly due to HCV infection [1]. ‘ In 1940s, the first infectious viral agent responsible for hepati- tis was reported to be the hepatitis A virus. It is an RNA virus ∗ Vol.25, No.12, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-020-1089-5 RESONANCE | December 2020 1681