IMMUNE RESPONSE OF HCV INFECTION

这是一个协作性的持续努力 多阶段项目研究两种疾病的免疫反应 人和实验动物感染人类后的情况 丙型肝炎病毒。在最初阶段，商业测试套件 用于检测已知的丙型肝炎病毒蛋白抗体 非甲非乙型肝炎患者血清。这提供了有关 丙型肝炎病毒感染的血清学资料及其相互关系 去做其他临床检查。第二阶段的研究将 专注于免疫优势表位的鉴定和 中和表位。这一阶段的研究范围是 范围广泛，耗时长。该项目的第三阶段将 包括利用免疫反应的知识来开发 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 丙型肝炎病毒感染者的慢性化。这项研究的一个部分是 在实验室开发的转移技术和程序 研究到我们的临床研究。我们已经发展出一种核扩散 检测小鼠对重组疫苗免疫应答的方法 丙型肝炎病毒核心蛋白。然后，我们采用了在 与小鼠合作开发区分慢性阻塞性肺疾病的程序 从康复的患者中分离出感染患者。在95财年和财年期间 96年，我们启动了一个新的项目来研究原子核的可能性 丙型肝炎病毒酸性疫苗。知识、技术和 在这项核酸疫苗研究中开发的材料也将 补充我们在理解免疫方面的持续努力 丙型肝炎病毒感染的反应。这两个项目的长期目标都将 引领慢性病毒免疫治疗模式的发展 肝脏感染。

This is a continuous effort of a collaborative multi-phase project to investigate the immune response in both humans and experimental animals after their infection with human hepatitis C virus. In the initial phase, the commercial testing kits were used to detect antibodies to HCV proteins in the known non-A, non-B hepatitis patient sera. This provided information on the serological data of hepatitis C virus infection and its relationship to other clinical determinations. The second phase of the study will concentrate on the identification of immune dominant epitopes and neutralizing epitopes. The scope of this phase of study will be extensive and time-consuming. The third phase of the project will encompass using the knowledge of the immune response to develop preventive strategy and understanding of the pathogenicity of this viral infection. Special attention will be paid in identifying the possible relationship between the immune response and the high chronicity in HCV infected patients. One part of this study is to transfer 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 the recovered ones. During FY '95 and FY '96, we initiated a new project to examine the potential for a nucleic acid vaccine for HCV. The knowledge, the techniques and the material developed in this nucleic acid vaccine study will also complement our continued effort in understanding the immune response in HCV infection. The long-term goal of both projects will lead to developing models of immune therapy of chronic viral infection of the liver.