TABLE 1.

Patient characteristics and HCV_NS3-1073 and HCV_NS3-1406 peptide-specific cytotoxic activity of T-cell lines derived from PBMC of patients with chronic hepatitis C

Patient	HCV genotype	HCV RNA (106 copies/ml)	ALTa (U/ml)	Liver histologyb		Specific lysis (%) ofc:
				Inflammatory score	Fibrosis score	HCVNS3-1073-loaded target cells	HCVNS3-1406-loaded target cells
Chr-1	1b	30.9	25	7	0	48	29
Chr-2	2b	6.1	35	9	0	59	53
Chr-3	2b	4.7	14	NDd	ND	19	5
Chr-4	1b	0.4	18	5	0	6	2
Chr-5	2b	43	25	ND	ND	43	8
Chr-6	1a	7.0	27	3	0	0	0
Chr-7	UGe	43.1	32	ND	ND	3	4
Chr-8	1b	1.3	22	ND	ND	27	7
Chr-9	1b	0.2	22	ND	ND	44	12
Chr-10	2b	6.0	20	ND	ND	2	21
Chr-11	1a	0.3	60	6	0	42	42
Chr-12	1a	21.1	59	8	1	44	36
Chr-13	1a	1.2	55	6	0	9	43
Chr-14	1a	6.4	40	5	0	2	5
Chr-15	1b	0.5	50	7	1	3	3
Chr-16	1a	0.5	91	3	0	18	15
Chr-17	1a	2.5	55	6	0	2	28
Chr-18	1a	31.7	69	ND	ND	3	16
Chr-19	1a	6.8	51	7	1	38	0
Chr-20	1a	1.4	49	7	0	48	26
No. of patients positive/total (% positive)						11/20 (55)	11/20 (50)
Mean cytotoxicityf ± SD						39 ± 12	29 ± 12

^aALT, alanine aminotransferase. 

^bLiver biopsy specimens were scored according the HAI score introduced by Knodell et al. (19b). Inflammatory score, i.e., histological inflammatory activity score, 0 to 14; fibrosis score, 0 to 4. All liver biopsies were performed within 3 months of the immunologic analysis. 

^cThe specific cytotoxic activity of peptide-stimulated cell lines was tested at an effector/target cell ratio of 30:1. Responses with a specific lysis of >10% were considered to be positive and are shown in boldface. Cell lines tested for HCV_NS3-1073-specific cytotoxicity had been stimulated with peptide HCV_NS3-1073; cell lines tested for HCV_NS3-1406-specific cytotoxicity had been stimulated with peptide HCV_NS3-1406. 

^dND, not done. 

^eUG, unable to genotype. 

^fThe mean cytotoxicity of all positive T-cell lines was calculated.