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. 1994 Sep;1(5):545–551. doi: 10.1128/cdli.1.5.545-551.1994

Evidence of subtype-specific antibodies to antigenic epitopes in the NS5 region of hepatitis C virus in the circulation of patients with chronic hepatitis C.

J A Quiroga 1, J Martin 1, M Pernas 1, M Pardo 1, M Herrero 1, I Castillo 1, J Bartolome 1, V Carreño 1
PMCID: PMC368335  PMID: 8556499

Abstract

The antigenicity of the NS5 region of type 1 hepatitis C virus (HCV) was investigated by epitope mapping of the region spanning amino acids 2530 to 2723 of the HCV polyprotein. Six antigenic regions were recognized by anti-HCV positive sera from individuals with chronic hepatitis C in a modified enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with synthetic oligopeptides. Five of these regions demonstrated intra-type 1 sequence variations defining subtype 1a and 1b HCV sequences. The region between amino acids 2623 and 2634 allowed testing of subtype-specific anti-NS5 antibodies; serological reactivity to subtypes 1a and 1b was observed in 27 and 61%, respectively, of 150 cases with chronic hepatitis C. Simultaneous reactivity to subtypes 1a and 1b was found in 23% of the patients. Detection of subtype-specific anti-NS5 antibody correlated in more than 80% of the cases with the HCV genotype (subtypes 1a and 1b) analyzed by PCR amplification of the NS5 sequence. These data provide evidence of the existence of a subtype-specific anti-NS5 response in the circulation of patients with chronic hepatitis C.

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Selected References

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