The small envelope protein of hepatitis B virus (HBsAg-S) can self-assemble into highly organized virus like particles (VLPs) and induce an effective immune response. In this study, a restriction enzyme site was engineered into the cDNA of HBsAg-S at a position corresponding to the exposed site within the hydrophilic a determinant region (amino acid [aa] 127-128) to create a novel HBsAg vaccine...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) displays high genetic diversity. Inter-host sequence variability may mainly reflect a neutral drift evolution. In contrast, intra-host evolution may be driven by an adaptive selection to host responses to infection. Here, HCV E2 intra-host evolution in two patients during the course and follow-up of successive treatments with IFN-alpha and IFN-alpha/ribavirin was investi...

Genetic variability plays a key role in the biology and medical treatment of RNA viruses. As an RNA virus, Hepatitis C virus (HCV) replicate as complex distributions of closely related genomes termed viral quasispecies. The behavior of the evolving HCV quasispecies population is influenced by the ensemble of mutants that compose the viral population. One such influence is the presence of minori...

We analyzed hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 4 isolates circulating in the Alexandria District (Egypt) in terms of genetic divergence and the presence of different subtypes. Hypervariable region 1 (HVR1) and the NH2 region of the E2 protein were characterized, and the heterogeneity of subtype 4a isolates was evaluated by analyzing epitope frequencies, immunoproteasome prediction, and possible g...

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...

Neither the cellular binding sites nor the extrahepatic reservoirs for the hepatitis C virus (HCV) are well understood. The study of Hamaia and colleagues (page 2293) investigates the characteristics of HCV binding to platelets and 2 mononuclear cell lines. Among the interesting findings of this study: (1) Most HCV (95%) circulates bound to IgG; only 1% of circulating virus is cell bound. (2) H...

Adenoviral vectors have been used for a variety of vaccine applications including cancer and infectious diseases. Traditionally, Ad-based vaccines are designed to express antigens through transgene expression of a given antigen. For effective vaccine development it is often necessary to express or present multiple antigens to the immune system to elicit an optimal vaccine as observed preclinica...

UNLABELLED Hepatitis C virus (HCV) envelope glycoproteins E1 and E2 form a heterodimer and mediate receptor interactions and viral fusion. Both E1 and E2 are targets of the neutralizing antibody (NAb) response and are candidates for the production of vaccines that generate humoral immunity. Previous studies demonstrated that N-terminal hypervariable region 1 (HVR1) can modulate the neutralizati...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) was transmitted from a chronic carrier to his female partner during unprotected anal and vaginal intercourse. Based on HVR1 and phylogenetic tree analysis, the couple had closely related isolates. These findings confirm sexual transmission of HCV without other risk factors.