Fig. 6.

Anti-CD21 and anti-CD35 antibodies can block the binding of HCV viruses from chronically infected patients to B cells. Two ml of PBMCs (2.5×10⁷ cells/ml) were incubated with 10 µg of the indicated antibody at 25°C for 0.5 h; followed by mixing with 3 ml of the indicated 15-fold diluted virus (pre-incubation for 0.5 h at 25°C, 3–5×10⁶ genomic copies total), and incubating at 25°C for 1 h. The cells then were processed for RNA isolation and HCV quantification as described in Methods section. Each value represents the mean ± SD of 6 determinations. The experiments were repeated twice with similar results using PBMCs from two different donors.