Magnitude of CD8 T-cell responses against hepatitis C virus and severity of hepatitis do not necessarily determine outcomes in acute hepatitis C virus infection.
OBJECTIVE
We investigated the relationship between the magnitude of comprehensive hepatitis C virus (HCV)-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses and the clinical course of acute HCV infection.


METHODS
Six consecutive patients with acute HCV infection were studied. Analysis of HCV-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses was performed using an interferon-gamma-based enzyme-linked immunospot assay using peripheral CD8(+) T-cells, monocytes and 297 20-mer synthetic peptides overlapping by 10 residues and spanning the entire HCV sequence of genotype 1b.


RESULTS
Five patients presented detectable HCV-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses against a single and different peptide, whereas 1 patient showed responses against three different peptides. Neither the magnitude of HCV-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses nor the severity of hepatitis predicts the outcome of acute hepatitis. The maximum number of HCV-specific CD8(+) T-cells correlated with maximum serum alanine aminotransferase level during the course (r = 0.841, P = 0.036).


CONCLUSIONS
HCV-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses were detectable in all 6 patients with acute HCV infection, and 6 novel HCV-specific CTL epitopes were identified. Acute HCV infection can resolve with detectable HCV-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses, but without development of antibody against HCV.
Doi
Hiroyoshi
H
Department of Gastroenterology, Showa University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Hiroishi
Kazumasa
K
Shimazaki
Tomoe
T
Eguchi
Junichi
J
Baba
Toshiyuki
T
Ito
Takayoshi
T
Matsumura
Takuya
T
Nozawa
Hisako
H
Morikawa
Kenichi
K
Ishii
Shigeaki
S
Hiraide
Ayako
A
Sakaki
Masashi
M
Imawari
Michio
M