Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause worldwide of chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, and the development of an effective vaccine represents a high priority goal. The hyper variable region 1 (HVR1) of the second envelope protein (E2) of HCV contains a principal neutralizing determinant, but it is highly variable among different isolates and it is involved in the escape from host immune response. To be effective, a vaccine should elicit a cross-reacting humoral response against the majority of viral variants. We show that it is possible to achieve a broadly cross-reactive immune response in rabbits by immunization with mimotopes of the HVR1, selected from a specialized phage library using HCV patients' sera. Some of the cross-reacting anti-mimotope antibodies elicited in rabbits, recognize discontinuous epitopes in a manner similar to those induced by the virus in infected patients. © 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.
Mimotopes of the hyper variable region 1 of the hepatitis C virus induce cross-reactive antibodies directed against discontinuous epitopes / Rosamaria, R., Antonella, F., Bruno Bruni, E., Giulia, P., Armin, L., Silvia, Z., Rosalba, T., Monica, P., Giovanni, G., Tramontano, A., M. U., M., Antonello, P., Alfredo, N., Riccardo, C., Annalisa, M.. - In: MOLECULAR IMMUNOLOGY. - ISSN 0161-5890. - 38:6(2001), pp. 485-492. [10.1016/s0161-5890(01)00084-0]
Mimotopes of the hyper variable region 1 of the hepatitis C virus induce cross-reactive antibodies directed against discontinuous epitopes
TRAMONTANO, ANNA;
2001
Abstract
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause worldwide of chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, and the development of an effective vaccine represents a high priority goal. The hyper variable region 1 (HVR1) of the second envelope protein (E2) of HCV contains a principal neutralizing determinant, but it is highly variable among different isolates and it is involved in the escape from host immune response. To be effective, a vaccine should elicit a cross-reacting humoral response against the majority of viral variants. We show that it is possible to achieve a broadly cross-reactive immune response in rabbits by immunization with mimotopes of the HVR1, selected from a specialized phage library using HCV patients' sera. Some of the cross-reacting anti-mimotope antibodies elicited in rabbits, recognize discontinuous epitopes in a manner similar to those induced by the virus in infected patients. © 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
