Fig. 5.

Non-peptidic antigens induce HCV replication inhibition and IFN-γ production in Vγ9Vδ2 T cells of HCV patients. (A) Vγ9Vδ2 T cells of HCV patients are activated by non-peptidic antigens. PBMCs were isolated from healthy donors (white bars; n = 5) or HCV patients (striped bars; n = 5) and stimulated with IPP, BrHPP or ZOL for 24 h. The IFN-γ production by Vδ2 T cells was evaluated by two-color intracellular flow cytometric analysis, as described in Fig. 2(C). The bars encompass the middle 50% of the individual measurements and the horizontal bar-dividing line indicates the median value. The vertical lines span the range of the lowest and highest measurements. Differences were not statistically significant. (B) Detection of the presence of HCV replicon in Rep60 cells. Rep60 cells were co-cultured with PBMCs, isolated from HCV patients (PBMC/HCV+), either in the absence (Med) or in the presence of IPP, ZOL or Phosphostim (BrHPP). After 4 days of co-culture, the HCV RNA was analyzed by RT–PCR as described in Fig. 1(A). A representative experiment is shown (n = 3).