Changes in hypervariable region 1 of the envelope 2 glycoprotein of hepatitis C virus in children and adults with humoral immune defects.
The N-terminal end of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) envelope glycoprotein E2 contains a stretch of 27 amino acids that exhibit increased variability. This hypervariable region 1 (HVR-1), as it is normally referred to, is thought to contain epitopes that come under humoral immune attack. In the present study, 10 patients (5 children and 5 adults) with humoral immune defects and chronic HCV infection were investigated, to see how HVR-1 sequences behave over time in these patients who are unable to produce antibodies. Amplicons of this region showed little or no variation at all over time, indicating that quasispecies variation in this region is driven by the host's humoral immune response.
Gaud
Umesh
U
Department of Medicine A, Imperial College School of Medicine, London, UK.
Langer
Barbara
B
Petropoulou
Theoni
T
Thomas
Howard C
HC
Karayiannis
Peter
P
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000361:Agammaglobulinemia / Q000821:virology*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002648:Child; D017074:Common Variable Immunodeficiency / Q000821:virology*; D022801:Complementarity Determining Regions / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000276:immunology* / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
D022801:Complementarity Determining Regions; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins; C091015:glycoprotein E2, Hepatitis C virus