Lesniewski R R, Boardway K M, Casey J M, Desai S M, Devare S G, Leung T K, Mushahwar I K
Experimental Biology Research, Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, IL 60064.
J Med Virol. 1993 Jun;40(2):150-6. doi: 10.1002/jmv.1890400213.
Synthetic peptides representing sequences encoded at the 5'-terminus of E2/NS1 in hepatitis C virus (HCV) were constructed. Peptides synthesized based on the sequences of four distinct HCV isolates were used to develop enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) for detection of antibodies in chronic HCV patients and in HCV-infected plasma donors. HCV sequence-specific antibodies were detected among patients with chronic HCV from the United States and Italy at frequencies of 22.2% and 55.8%, respectively. Similarly, sequence-specific antibodies were detected in 54.6% of U.S. and 55.6% of Japanese commercial plasma donors who had previous evidence of HCV exposure. Our data support earlier findings of geographic variability among HCV variants. The region encoded by amino acids (aa) 380-436 was shown to contain at least one variant-specific and one conserved epitope. The data further indicate that a majority of patients chronically infected with HCV (58.1% U.S., 68.8% Italy) have antibodies directed to the 5'-terminus of the E2/NS1 gene product. We conclude that genotypic variability within the E2/NS1 gene of HCV results in antigenically distinct variants.
构建了代表丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）E2/NS1 5'-末端编码序列的合成肽。基于四种不同HCV分离株的序列合成的肽被用于开发酶免疫测定法（EIA），以检测慢性HCV患者和HCV感染血浆供体中的抗体。在美国和意大利的慢性HCV患者中分别以22.2%和55.8%的频率检测到HCV序列特异性抗体。同样，在之前有HCV暴露证据的美国54.6%的商业血浆供体和日本55.6%的商业血浆供体中检测到序列特异性抗体。我们的数据支持了早期关于HCV变体地理变异性的发现。由氨基酸（aa）380 - 436编码的区域显示含有至少一个变体特异性表位和一个保守表位。数据进一步表明，大多数慢性感染HCV的患者（美国为58.1%，意大利为68.8%）具有针对E2/NS1基因产物5'-末端的抗体。我们得出结论，HCV的E2/NS1基因内的基因型变异性导致了抗原性不同的变体。
