Antigenic structure of the hepatitis C virus envelope 2 protein

The antigenic structure of the envelope 2 (e2) protein of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) was characterized by the use of 70 synthetic peptides and 131 human sera from persons with antibodies to HCV. Among 34 overlapping peptides spanning the e2 protein of HCV, two major antigenic regions were located to residues 484-499 and residues 554-569. The sequence of the two major antigenic regions of the e2 protein are partly well conserved within the described types of HCV. Both regions contain two Cys residues in close proximity, and the region at residues 554-569 contains a putative N-glycosylation site, which are factors that previously have been suggested to affect the immune recognition of the e2 protein. Using substitution peptide analogues where each position within residues 484-499 and 554-569 were sequentially substituted by Ala or Gly, the most essential residues for antibody binding were found to be the Pro-498, Ala-499, Ala-566, Pro-567, and Pro-568. All of these, except for the Pro-498 and Ala-566, are conserved among different HCV strains. Also, according to previous studies, position 496 often shows variations, which could be explained by position 496 being contained within the antigenic region at residues 484-499. Interestingly, none of the Cys residues at positions 486, 494, 564 and 569 were found to be essential for antibody binding, indicating that these are not essential in maintaining the e2 antigenicity of the peptides. In a material of 114 confirmed anti-HCV positive sera, derived from patients during the acute or the chronic phase of HCV infection, the prevalence of antibodies to the two major linear antigenic regions of the e2 protein was found to be 55% among HCV RNA-positive sera, and 53% among HCV RNA-negative sera. In conclusion, we have identified and characterized two major linear antigenic regions outside the two hypervariable regions of the e2 protein. Since these regions are accessible to the B cells of the infected host, these two regions are likely to be surface exposed either on the precursor polyprotein or the native e2 protein. Also, we could confirm that antibodies to the e2 protein co-exist with HCV viraemia.