title: Antibody-free virion titer greatly differs between hepatitis C virus genotypes.
abstract: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) virions have been shown to be bound to antibodies in patients with chronic HCV infection. The sera from patients infected with genotype 1b HCV contained more antibody-free virions than those from patients with genotype 2a/2b HCV. When compared at the same levels of serum HCV RNA, free virion titers of genotype 2a/2b-infected patients were much lower than those of genotype 1b-infected patients, indicating that a larger fraction of HCV virions are bound to antibodies in the former than in the latter. The gene segments encoding the hypervariable region (HVR) 1, a principal neutralization epitope, of HCV were amplified from the patients' sera by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The majority of genotype 2a/2b-infected patients had very similar HVR 1 sequences to one another, whereas patients infected with genotype 1b HCV had highly heterogeneous sequences. Differences in the amount of antibody-free virion and HVR1 sequence variability between genotypes may have an implication in HCV pathogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, Faculty of Medicine, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kimura
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hayashida
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ishibashi
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Niho
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yanagi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009500:Neutralization Tests; D011233:Precipitin Tests; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D014771:Virion / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: C400562:HVR1 protein, Hepatitis C virus; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies; D014764:Viral Proteins