Multiple sequence-reactive antibodies induced by a single peptide immunization with hypervariable region 1 of hepatitis C virus.
Hypervariable region 1 (HVR1) of hepatitis C virus (HCV) is known to contain neutralizing epitopes. We previously found that murine antibodies against HVR1-#6 captured a different isolate, HCV-#7, and cross-reacted with the HVR1 peptide of HCV-#7. We investigated the inducibility and generality of cross-reaction of animal anti-HVR1 antibody responses in this study. Anti-HVR1-#7 antibodies, which were induced in mice and a chimpanzee by immunization, were found to be cross-reactive to HVR1-#6 peptide. Antibody responses against HVR1-#6-1 and HVR1-#7 peptides were detected in 11/165 (6.7%) and 26/165 (15.8%) HCV-infected individuals, respectively. Nine HVR1 sequences from six individuals, who were strongly positive for anti-HVR1-#7 antibodies, were only 50-64.5% identical to that of HVR1-#7. All nine of these HVR1 peptides were reactive to sera from the six patients and/or to antisera against HVR1-#6 and HVR1-#7 produced in mice and chimpanzees. Cross-inhibition tests of chimpanzee antisera indicated that a given species of anti-HVR1 antibodies was reactive to multiple HVR1 sequences. Fine epitope mapping of polyclonal and monoclonal anti-HVR1 antibodies showed that conserved subregions in HVR1 sequences determined the observed immunological cross-reactivity. Our data demonstrate that cross-reacting anti-HVR1 antibodies are inducible by a single peptide immunization.
Zhou
Y H
YH
Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, 30-1, Ooyaguchikami-machi, Itabashi-ku, 173-8610, Japan.
Moriyama
M
M
Esumi
M
M
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000276:immunology; D003429:Cross Reactions; D018604:Epitope Mapping; D018985:Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte / Q000276:immunology; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000276:immunology*; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies / Q000276:immunology*; D018936:Hepatitis C Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000276:immunology*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014611:Vaccination
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D018985:Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies; D018936:Hepatitis C Antigens; D010455:Peptides