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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Oct 3.
Published in final edited form as: Curr Drug Targets. 2017;18(7):826–843. doi: 10.2174/1389450116666150825110532

Figure 3.

Figure 3

T cell responses in acute resolving (A–B) and chronic (C–D) HCV infection. A) Patterns of viremia (HCV RNA) and liver cell death (alanine aminotransferase, ALT, which is released from damaged hepatocytes) in spontaneous resolution of HCV infection. B) CD4+ and CD8+ T cells respond to multiple HCV epitopes until viremia is cleared and afterwards. C) Patterns of viremia and liver cell death in chronic infection. D) CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses wane as viremia persists. CD8+ T cells lose function due to exhaustion after loss of CD4+ T cell help. CD8+ T cells also select for variant virus sequences that escape immune detection.