title: Cucumber mosaic virus as carrier of a hepatitis C virus-derived epitope.
abstract: Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) is a three component isodiametric plant virus which is common worldwide and has an extremely wide host range. A pseudorecombinant was made, derived from the RNA3 component of the CMV-S strain, carrying the coat protein (CP) gene, and the RNA1,2 components of the CMV-D strain. This system developed mild mosaic and vein clearing in Xanthi tobacco three weeks after inoculation. The CP gene was then engineered in three different positions, to encode a Hepatitis C virus (HCV) epitope. The selected peptide was the so-called R9 mimotope, a synthetic surrogate derived from a consensus profile of many hypervariable region 1 (HVR1) sequences of the putative HCV envelope protein E2. Serum samples from 60 patients with chronic hepatitis C displayed a significant immunoreactivity to crude plant extracts infected with the chimeric CMV. These results suggest that further investigation should be made into a possible vaccine function for the CMV-HCV mimotope system.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia, Difesa e Biotecnologie Agro-Forestali, Università Degli Studi della Basilicata, Potenza, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Natilla
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Piazzolla
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nuzzaci
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Saldarelli
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tortorella
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Antonaci
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Piazzolla
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003429:Cross Reactions; D017799:Cucumovirus / Q000235:genetics*; D000939:Epitopes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000276:immunology; D018936:Hepatitis C Antigens / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000821:virology; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000821:virology; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000939:Epitopes; D018936:Hepatitis C Antigens; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins; C091015:glycoprotein E2, Hepatitis C virus