Ward S, Lauer G, Isba R, Walker B, Klenerman P
Nuffield Department of Medicine, Oxford, UK.
Clin Exp Immunol. 2002 May;128(2):195-203. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2249.2002.01840.x.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an RNA virus which is estimated to persistently infect about 170 million people worldwide. After acute infection, there is an initial period during which long-term outcome is decided. There is strong evidence that the cellular immune responses, involving both CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes, are involved at this stage and it is their effectiveness which determines outcome. What is not understood is what determines their effectiveness. The most important component of this is likely to be some aspect of epitope selection, itself dictated by host MHC. Thus, to understand host immunity to HCV, we need to have a detailed understanding of the peptides involved in T lymphocyte responses. In this review, we discuss the peptide epitopes that have been identified so far, and their potential significance. We relate this to a scheme of host defence which may be useful for understanding natural and vaccine-induced immunity.
丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）是一种RNA病毒，据估计全球约有1.7亿人持续感染该病毒。急性感染后，存在一个决定长期预后的初始阶段。有强有力的证据表明，涉及CD4+和CD8+ T淋巴细胞的细胞免疫反应在这个阶段发挥作用，正是它们的有效性决定了预后。目前尚不清楚的是决定它们有效性的因素是什么。其中最重要的组成部分可能是表位选择的某些方面，而表位选择本身由宿主主要组织相容性复合体（MHC）决定。因此，为了理解宿主对HCV的免疫，我们需要详细了解参与T淋巴细胞反应的肽段。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了迄今为止已鉴定出的肽表位及其潜在意义。我们将其与一种宿主防御机制联系起来，这可能有助于理解自然免疫和疫苗诱导的免疫。
