title: Reactivity of synthetic peptides representing selected sections of hepatitis C virus core and envelope proteins with a panel of hepatitis C virus-seropositive human plasma.
abstract: A series of 54 synthetic peptides, 15-20 residues long, that represented selected parts of the structural proteins of hepatitis C virus (HCV) were tested for immunoreactivity with a panel of 45 plasma samples from potential blood donors who were known to be seropositive for anti-HCV. Most of the ten peptides that represented the core protein showed reactivity with most of the panel samples. All except one of the 20 peptides that represented non-hypervariable regions of envelope proteins E1 and E2 showed little or no reactivity. In contrast, 18 of the the 24 peptides that represented variants of the hypervariable region 1 of the E2 protein reacted with at least one panel sample. Notably, 40% of the panel samples cross-reacted with two or more different peptides sequences some of which differed by more than 50%. Two panel samples each cross-reacted with seven different peptide sequences. The results suggest a broad anti-hypervariable region antibody specificity in many anti-HCV-seropositive samples and possible limits on the mutability of hypervariable region sequences. The work contributes to understanding the immunogenicity and persistence of HCV.
authors.affiliation: Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, England.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Petrik
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Alexander
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pearson
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Allain
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000918:Antibody Specificity / Q000276:immunology; D001782:Blood Donors; D003429:Cross Reactions / Q000276:immunology; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D016679:Genome, Viral; D006241:Haptens / Q000276:immunology; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000276:immunology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine / Q000276:immunology; D014758:Viral Core Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D006241:Haptens; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies; D010455:Peptides; D014758:Viral Core Proteins; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine