[Searching for hepatitis C virus by immunoelectron microscopy and its morphology].

Many investigators have searched for the causative agent(s) of blood-borne non-A, non-B hepatitis in sera and liver from patients and experimental animals, and have reported various virus-like particles, morphologically resembling parvovirus, togavirus, picornavirus, hepadnavirus, paramyxovirus, papovavirus, retrovirus or bunyavirus. Despite extensive effort, none of these virus-like particles has been confirmed universally as an etiologic virus because of the absence of immunological identification. The frustration was solved by the success in cloning cDNA of the genome of hepatitis C virus (HCV), a major etiologic agent of human non-A, non-B hepatitis, in 1989, but the morphology of HCV remained in riddles. We attempted to visualize HCV by indirect immunogold electron microscopy, using specific antibodies to the putative HCV envelope 1 protein and succeeded in identifying HCV particle in HCV-RNA-rich plasma. Our study showed that HCV particles are 55-65 nm spherical particles with 6 nm fine surface spike-like projections, and have a 30-35 nm inner core.