Goutagny Nadège, Fatmi Ahmed, De Ledinghen Victor, Penin François, Couzigou Patrice, Inchauspé Geneviève, Bain Christine
Unité Mixte de Recherche 2142, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Biomérieux, Lyon, France.
J Infect Dis. 2003 Jun 15;187(12):1951-8. doi: 10.1086/375350. Epub 2003 May 29.
The existence of extrahepatic sites of hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication has been proposed as a mechanism responsible for the poor antiviral immune response found in chronic infection. Dendritic cells (DCs), as unique antigen-presenting cells able to induce a primary immune response, are prime targets of persistent viruses. From 24 blood samples obtained from HCV-seropositive patients, peripheral blood DCs (PBDCs) were purified. HCV genomic sequences were specifically detected by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction in 6 of 24 PBDC pellets, and replicative-strand RNA also was found in 3 of 24 cell purifications. Analysis of the HCV quasi-species distribution in the PBDC population of 1 patient showed the presence of a dominant variant different from that found in plasma with respect to the primary amino-acid sequence and physicochemical profile of the hypervariable region 1 of glycoprotein E2. These data strongly suggest that PBDCs constitute a reservoir in which HCV replication takes place during natural infection.
丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）肝外复制位点的存在被认为是慢性感染中抗病毒免疫反应较差的一个原因。树突状细胞（DCs）作为能够引发初次免疫反应的独特抗原呈递细胞，是持续性病毒的主要靶标。从24份丙型肝炎病毒血清阳性患者的血液样本中纯化出外周血DCs（PBDCs）。通过逆转录聚合酶链反应在24份PBDC沉淀中的6份中特异性检测到HCV基因组序列，并且在24次细胞纯化中的3次中也发现了复制链RNA。对1例患者PBDC群体中HCV准种分布的分析表明，就糖蛋白E2高变区1的主要氨基酸序列和理化特性而言，存在一种与血浆中不同的优势变异体。这些数据强烈表明，PBDCs构成了一个在自然感染期间发生HCV复制的储存库。
