GENETIC ALTERATIONS OF THE PUTATIVE ENVELOPE PROTEINS ENCODING REGIONOF THE HEPATITIS-C VIRUS IN THE PROGRESSION TO RELAPSED PHASE FROM ACUTE HEPATITIS - HUMORAL IMMUNE-RESPONSE TO HYPERVARIABLE REGION-1
H. Sekiya et al., GENETIC ALTERATIONS OF THE PUTATIVE ENVELOPE PROTEINS ENCODING REGIONOF THE HEPATITIS-C VIRUS IN THE PROGRESSION TO RELAPSED PHASE FROM ACUTE HEPATITIS - HUMORAL IMMUNE-RESPONSE TO HYPERVARIABLE REGION-1, International journal of cancer, 57(5), 1994, pp. 664-670
Hypervariable region I (HVRI) of the putative second envelope glycopro
tein (gp70) of hepatitis C virus (HCV) undergoes sequential alteration
s at intervals of several months during the chronic phase of hepatitis
. To evaluate the implications of sequence variability in HVRI of HCV,
we investigated the sequence variability of the whole envelope-protei
n (gp35 and gp70)-coding regions of HCV genome derived from patient M
in acute and relapsed phases (8-month interval) of hepatitis. From thi
s analysis, we found that a Leu (position 405) in HVRI substituted to
Pro, and that 4 additional substitutions could be detected in gp70 dur
ing the relapsed phase. Sequence-specific antibody against HVRI derive
d from patient M was first detected in the serum at 8 months after the
onset of hepatitis, but no other specific antibodies against peptides
containing amino-acid position(s) substituted in regions other than H
VRI could be detected. Epitope mapping using the sequence of HVRI deri
ved from the acute phase of hepatitis was also performed, and a B-cell
epitope (positions 397 to 407) of 11 amino acids was identified. Howe
ver, the Pro variant at position 405 did not display an escape pattern
from the antibody produced at 8 months after the onset. In addition,
we demonstrated the existence of important amino-acid residue position
s which are recognized by the anti-HVRI antibody produced in patient M
using introduction point mutations within HVRI. (C) 1994 Wiley-Liss,
Inc.