Immunization with a synthetic multiepitope antigen induces humoral and cellular immune responses to hepatitis C virus in mice
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Published on: February 3, 2012
Lishan Chen1, Tienjun Gao, Nan Yang
1State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, Institute of Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
The immunogenicity of a synthetic multiepitope PCX3 antigen, which contains triple tandem repeats of five conserved epitopes from hepatitis C virus (HCV) polyprotein, was studied in BALB/c mice given three intraperitoneal injections of antigen with Freund's adjuvant. Both a strong antibody response and specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes were induced. The specific anti-PCX3 IgG was able to bind HCV particles from hepatitis C patient sera by incubation overnight. In particular, in transgenic mice with chimeric human livers, anti-PCX3 antibody was able to lower the viral load in two of five mice and to eliminate HCV infection in three of five mice by 2 wk after inoculation with HCV-positive serum from patients. These results indicated that the synthetic multiepitope PCX3 antigen elicits a potent humoral and cellular immune response against HCV.
The immunogenicity of a synthetic multiepitope PCX3 antigen, which contains triple tandem repeats of five conserved epitopes from hepatitis C virus (HCV) polyprotein, was studied in BALB/c mice given three intraperitoneal injections of antigen with Freund's adjuvant. Both a strong antibody response and specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes were induced. The specific anti-PCX3 IgG was able to bind HCV particles from hepatitis C patient sera by incubation overnight. In particular, in transgenic mice with chimeric human livers, anti-PCX3 antibody was able to lower the viral load in two of five mice and to eliminate HCV infection in three of five mice by 2 wk after inoculation with HCV-positive serum from patients. These results indicated that the synthetic multiepitope PCX3 antigen elicits a potent humoral and cellular immune response against HCV.
