T. Akatsuka et al., B-CELL EPITOPES ON THE HEPATITIS-C VIRUS NUCLEOCAPSID PROTEIN DETERMINED BY HUMAN MONOSPECIFIC ANTIBODIES, Hepatology, 18(3), 1993, pp. 503-510
Four monospecific antibodies against the hepatitis C virus nucleocapsi
d protein, which was expressed by recombinant baculovirus, were obtain
ed by Epstein-Barr virus transformation of B cells from three patients
with chronic hepatitis C virus infection. One of these antibodies was
IgG and the other three were IgM. Their specificities were characteri
zed initially by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and immunoblotting
against hepatitis C virus proteins expressed by six recombinant baculo
viruses with different hepatitis C virus sequence insertions. These sp
ecificities were confirmed, and their epitopes were more precisely det
ermined with a series of overlapping decapeptides made by solid-phase
pin technology. Two antibodies (1F4 and 2G6) reacted with the same pep
tides located near the amino(N)-terminus of nucleocapsid protein (amin
o acids 33-50). The third antibody (3B5) recognized the peptide consis
ting of amino acids 133-142, and the fourth antibody (3B9) was mapped
to the carboxy(C)-terminus and reacted with a peptide consisting of am
ino acids 165-174. This epitope has not previously been reported. Two
antibodies, 1F4 and 3B9, which are specific to the N-terminus and C-te
rminus of nucleocapsid protein, respectively, have been stably produce
d for more than 6 mo and are being subcloned to establish monoclonalit
y. These antibodies should be useful reagents for the study of hepatit
is C virus.