Analysis of specific immune response to HCV gene-transfected cells

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Summary1) The nucleotide sequences of hypervarible region 1 of HCVundergoes alteration during the several months after the HCV infection. We found that the original HCV contains a Leu at position 405 in HVR1 of HCV genome (wild type) and that this virus was cleared with the simultaneously appeared anti-gp-70 (anti-HVR-1 peptide). However, with the re-elevation of serum ALT level, HCV was reappeared and this virus had the mutation of the position 405. These results suggest that this region contain the immunological epitope for being recognized by the neutralizing antibody for HCV infection.2) Multiplicity of the immunolgical epitopes of HCV core protein.Using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), we found that several immunoreactive epitopes exist within the capsid protein of HCV.Among of them, dominant epitopes were located within SCP-4 (amino acid positions 48 to 67) in acute hepatitis (AH) patients and within both SCP-2 (amino acid positions 19 to 31) and SCP-3 (amino acid positions 30 to 49) in chronic hepatitis (CH) patients. The prevalence of anti-SCP-2, -3, and -4 was 45%, 36% and 73% in AH and 76%, 86% and 57% in CH,respectively. By using these assays, we estimated the utilization of these antibodies for the diagnosis of either AH or CH.These results showed that all seven patients having anti-SCP-3 in the absence of anti-SCP-4 were CH and five of six having anti-SCP-4 in the absence of anti-SCP-3 were AH.Thus, these results indicate that the measurement of these anti-SCPs, and in particular anti-SCP-3 and -4, may provide some possibility for distinguishing acute and chronic infections of HCV.