title: The hepatitis C virus genome: a guide to its conserved sequences and candidate epitopes.
abstract: A comprehensive analysis of reported hepatitis C virus genomic sequences comprising 151 partial or complete nucleotide sequences and 159 partial or complete amino acid sequences revealed an irregular composition of conserved and variable regions. There were but eight conserved nucleotide sequences, none outside the 5' noncoding and structural regions. A search among conserved amino acid sequences revealed 14 candidate B-cell epitopes, which were chosen mainly on the basis of their hydrophilicity profiles. Twenty five candidate T-cell epitopes were selected according to the criteria of absolute conservation of amino acid sequence, together with characteristic sequence motifs, amphipathic helical structure, or both. Conserved peptide sequences, with the characteristics of both B- and T-cell epitopes, were identified in the nonstructural 5 (NS5) region of the genome.
authors.affiliation: Division of Molecular Virology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030.
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: J Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.forename: I J
authors.initials: IJ
authors.lastname: Lauder
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: F B
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Hollinger
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D001483:Base Sequence; D017124:Conserved Sequence / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D000939:Epitopes / Q000235:genetics*; D016679:Genome, Viral; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000939:Epitopes