Fig. 6.

Main binding motif recognized by mAb 2A5. (A) Alignment of the E2-region spanning AA420-452 of the different HCV strains used in the binding and neutralization studies. Residues found critical for mAb 2A5-binding (AA433, AA438, AA441, AA442, AA443 and AA446) are highlighted and, for each strain, the simplified AA-motif is shown on the right. (B) A hierarchy in neutralization potential was deduced for the binding motifs. The AA-motif corresponding to the H77c strain is marked with a black box. AA-motifs shown on the left-side of ‘>’ have better neutralization properties compared to AA-motifs shown on the right-side. Motifs from ‘difficult to neutralize’ strains HCV-S52, JC1 and J6 are highlighted in red boxes. Motifs from HCV-strains that can be efficiently neutralized by 2A5 (P12_1091, HK6a and UKN5.15.7) are indicated in green boxes. (*) represents identical motifs with different neutralization efficiencies.