A naturally occurring compound found in grapefruit may prevent and stave off a chronic hepatitis C infection, a new study finds.

Hepatitis C is a virus that inflames the liver and can lead to liver failure and liver cancer. According to Health Canada, 240,000 Canadians are infected with hepatitis C and that number is rising.

Researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Engineering in Medicine have discovered that the flavonoid naringenin may prevent cells infected with the virus from secreting into healthy cells.

They believe this means the compound could potentially help remove the virus from a hepatitis C sufferer's body.

Flavonoids are compounds found in fruits and vegetables that have beneficial biochemical and antioxidant effects on the body.

"These results suggest that lipid-lowering drugs, as well as supplements, such as naringenin, may be combined with traditional antiviral therapies to reduce or even eliminate HCV (hepatitis C virus) from infected patients" Yaakov Nahmias, the paper's lead author, said in a release.

Three per cent of the world's population is infected with hepatitis C, according to the study's authors. Twenty per cent of sufferers end up developing cirrhosis of the liver because of the infection.

Using human cells cultured in the lab, as well as in experiments with mice, researchers discovered that the hepatitis C virus binds with "bad" cholesterol (low density lipoprotein) in the body when it is secreted from liver cells. In so doing, it has the ability to infect healthy liver cells.

However, naringenin stops this binding process, preventing infection.

"This work presents the possibility that non-toxic levels of a dietary supplement, such as naringenin, could effectively block HCV secretion," says Raymond Chung, one of the study authors.

"This approach might eventually be used to treat patients who do not respond to or cannot take traditional interferon-based treatment; or be used in combination with other agents to boost success rates."

The authors plan future studies on animals involving other citrus flavonoids to see if they can reduce the presence of the hepatitis C virus.

The study was published online Monday in the journal Hepatology.