Figure 1.

Viral escape from neutralizing antibody responses. In infected individuals, HCV exists as a quasispecies, i.e., a pool of constantly changing, distinct but related genomic variants. Resolving HCV infection is associated with a relatively stable pool of viral variants and the early induction of high-titer cross-neutralizing antibodies. Chronic HCV infection is correlated with diversification of the quasispecies population associated with a delayed induction of cross-neutralizing antibodies allowing viral escape from the host humoral responses.