introduction: hepatitis c virus (hcv) infection is a major public health problem which influences about 170 million people worldwide. different types of vaccines have been designed using hcv structural proteins to control the viral infection. the core nucleocapsid protein is one of the most conserved proteins and a desirable target for hcv vaccines, especially the protein-based vaccines. in cur...

Background: Hepatitis C (HCV) is a worldwide problem without an effective vaccine with more than 170 million chronically infected people worldwide. DNA vaccines expressing antigenic portions of the virus with adjutants have recently been developed as a novel vaccination technology. Objectives: In the present study, a DNA vaccine expressing HCV core protein was developed with IL12 as a genetic a...

conclusions these results exhibited the immuno potentiator effects of mip-3beta plasmid when coadministrated with the hcv core dna vaccine. complimentary studies integrating mip-3beta as a genetic adjuvant in hcv-core-dna vaccination models are warranted. results mice covaccinated with mip-3beta elicited an enhanced th1 biased systemic immune response as evidenced by higher ifn-γ/il-4 and anti-...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genomes and proteins are present in human brain tissues although the impact of HIV/HCV co-infection on neuropathogenesis remains unclear. Herein, we investigate HCV infectivity and effects on neuronal survival and neuroinflammation in conjunction with HIV infection. METHODOLOGY Human microglia, astrocyte and neuron cultures were infected with cell culture-de...

A self-modulating mechanism by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein has been suggested to influence the level of HCV replication, but current data on this subject are contradictory. We examined the effect of wild-type and mutated core protein on HCV IRES- and cap-dependent translation. The wild-type core protein was shown to inhibit both IRES- and cap-dependent translation in an in vitro sy...

The maturation and subcellular localization of hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein were investigated with both a vaccinia virus expression system and CHO cell lines stably transformed with HCV cDNA. Two HCV core proteins, with molecular sizes of 21 kDa (p21) and 23 kDa (p23), were identified. The C-terminal end of p23 is amino acid 191 of the HCV polyprotein, and p21 is produced as a result of...

To investigate the transforming potential of hepatitis C virus (HCV), HCV core protein was produced in BALB/3T3 A31-I-1 cells. The cells expressing HCV core gene cooperatively with the v-H-ras gene showed loss of contact inhibition, morphological alterations, and anchorage-independent and serum-independent growth. The cells producing HCV core protein showed enhanced growth against stimulus of g...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein either enhances or inhibits apoptosis depending on the apoptosis-inducing stimuli and cell conditions. In this paper we studied possible effect of HCV core protein on apoptosis induced by serum starvation. NIH3T3 cells stably expressing HCV core protein were more resistant to serum starvation-induced apoptosis than were the non-expressing control. Neither p5...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis C viral (HCV) proteins, including core, demonstrate immuno-modulatory properties; however, the effect of extracellular core on natural killer (NK) cells has not previously been investigated. AIMS To characterise NKs in acute HCV infection over time, and, to examine the effect of exogenous HCV-core protein on NK cell phenotype and function. METHODS Acute HCV patients (n ...