OBJECTIVE To determine whether liver-derived hepatitis C RNA-containing particles express the E1E2 discontinuous antigenic determinant defined by unique monoclonal antibody (mAb) D32.10 which recognizes three highly conserved segments in E1 (aa297-306) and E2 (aa480-494 and aa613-621) envelope glycoproteins. METHODS Human hepatocytes were isolated from HCV-infected cirrhotic explanted livers....

BACKGROUND Current treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has limited efficacy -especially among genotype 1 infected patients-, is costly, and involves severe side effects. Thus, predicting non-response is of major interest for both patient wellbeing and health care expense. At present, treatment cannot be individualized on the basis of any baseline predictor of response. We aim...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of end-stage liver diseases. With 3-4 million new HCV infections yearly, a vaccine is urgently needed. A better understanding of virus escape from neutralizing antibodies and their corresponding epitopes are important for this effort. However, for viral isolates with high antibody resistance, or antibodies with moderate potency, it remains challenging to...

BACKGROUND A major challenge for antiviral treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is viral resistance, potentially resulting from the high variability of HCV envelope glycoproteins and subsequent selection of strains with enhanced infectivity and/or immune escape. METHODS We used a bioinformatics and functional approach to investigate whether E1/E2 envelope glycoprotein structure and ...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) persists in the majority of those infected despite host immune responses. Evidence has accrued that selectively fixed mutations in the envelope genes (E1 and E2) are associated with viral persistence, particularly those that occur within the first hypervariable region of E2 (HVR1). However, the individual amino acid residues under selection have not been identified, nor ...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major health problem. However, the mechanism of hepatocyte infection is largely unknown. We demonstrate that the dendritic cell (DC)-specific C-type lectin DC-SIGN and its liver-expressed homologue L-SIGN/DC-SIGNR are important receptors for HCV envelope glycoproteins E1 and E2. Mutagenesis analyses demonstrated that both HCV E1 and E2 bind the same binding site on ...

Broadly-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (bNAbs) may guide vaccine development for highly variable viruses including hepatitis C virus (HCV), since they target conserved viral epitopes that could serve as vaccine antigens. However, HCV resistance to bNAbs could reduce the efficacy of a vaccine. HC33.4 and AR4A are two of the most potent anti-HCV human bNAbs characterized to date, binding to h...

Evaluation of: Grove J, Nielsen S, Zhong J et al.: Identification of a residue in hepatitis C virus E2 glycoprotein that determines scavenger receptor BI and CD81 receptor dependency and sensitivity to neutralizing antibodies. J. Virol. 82 (24), 12020-12029 (2008). Recent data suggest that a strong, early, broad neutralizing antibody response may contribute to the control of HCV in the acute ph...

In this study, a screening of the efficacy microbial consortium bacteria and fungi isolated from activated sludge, river sediment, compost for degradation LDPE/TPS was performed. According to morphological biochemical characterization, eight bacteria, Bacillus sonorensis, subtilis, Lysinibacillus massiliensis, licheniformis, indicus, megaterium, cereus, Pseudomonas alcaligenes, five molds, Aspe...

Background & Aims: Release of proinflammatory cytokines after traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of brain edema. Previous studies demonstrated that sex steroids decrease brain edema induced by TBI. In this study changes of brain cytokines after the administration of estrogen and progesterone 24 hours after TBI were evaluated. Materials and Methods: Female rats were divided into 7 gro...