IMMUNE RESPONSE OF HCV INFECTION

这个协作的多阶段项目是一项持续的努力 研究人类和实验动物的免疫反应 动物感染人类丙型肝炎病毒(丙型肝炎病毒)后。在……里面 最初阶段，商业检测试剂盒用于检测 已知的非甲非乙型肝炎患者中的丙型肝炎病毒蛋白抗体 病人血清。这提供了有关血吸虫血清学数据的信息。 丙型肝炎病毒感染及其与其他临床检测的关系。 这项研究的第二阶段将集中在识别免疫 优势表位和中和表位。这一阶段的范围 研究将是广泛和耗时的。第三阶段将 包括使用免疫反应的知识来开发一种 预防策略和对该病致病性的认识 病毒感染。将特别注意确定 免疫反应和高密度脂蛋白之间的可能关系 丙型肝炎病毒感染患者的慢性化。这项研究的一个部分是 将实验室开发的技术和程序 研究到我们的临床研究。我们已经发展出一种核扩散 小鼠对重组丙型肝炎病毒核心蛋白免疫应答的测定 蛋白质。然后，我们采用了在与 小鼠将开发区分慢性感染的程序 康复者中的患者。 在1995和1996财政年度，我们启动了一个新项目，以 研究丙型肝炎病毒核酸疫苗的可能性。这个 在这种核酸中发展起来的知识、技术和材料 疫苗研究将补充我们继续努力了解 丙型肝炎病毒感染的免疫反应。两者的长期目标 这些项目将导致开发免疫治疗模型 肝脏的慢性病毒感染。

This collaborative multiphase project is a continuous effort to investigate the immune response in both humans and experimental animals after their infection with human hepatitis C virus (HCV). In the initial phase, commercial testing kits were used to detect antibodies to HCV proteins in the known non-A and non-B hepatitis patient sera. This provided information on the serological data of HCV infection and its relationship to other clinical determinations. The second phase of the study will concentrate on identifying immune dominant epitopes and neutralizing epitopes. The scope of this phase of study will be extensive and timeconsuming. The third phase will encompass using knowledge of the immune response to develop a preventive strategy and understanding of the pathogenicity of this viral infection. Special attention will be paid to identifying the possible relationship between the immune response and the high chronicity in HCV-infected patients. One part of this study is to transfer the techniques and procedures developed in the laboratory studies to our clinical studies. We have developed a proliferation assay to measure the immune response in mice to recombinant HCV core proteins. We then adopted the experience learned in working with mice to develop procedures to differentiate chronic infected patients from recovered ones. During fiscal years 1995 and 1996, we initiated a new project to examine the potential for a nucleic acid vaccine for HCV. The knowledge, techniques, and material developed in this nucleic acid vaccine study will complement our continued effort to understand immune response in HCV infection. The long-term goals of both projects will lead to developing models of immune therapy for chronic viral infection of the liver.