MOLECULAR-CLONING OF THE IMMUNODOMINANT REGIONS OF HEPATITIS-C VIRUS TYPE-III AND TYPE-IV BY IMMUNOSCREENING

We have identified the immunodominant regions of hepatitis C virus (HC V) type III and IV by immunoscreening of a lambda gt11 cDNA library, w hich was constructed with RNA extracted from pooled sera of patients. In addition to the nucleocapsid protein, nonstructural region 3 (NS3), and NS4 regions, we found that the region at the N terminus of NS5 in type III and IV were also immunoreactive as well as in the prototype and type II, although amino acid homologies were approximately 60 % be tween the prototype (or HCV type II) and HCV isolates of type III or I V. This result indicated that the region at the N terminus of NS5 may be a candidate for serotyping studies of HCV. This report presents the primary structure of immunodominant portions at the N terminus of NS5 in two HCV subtypes and a preliminary study of the immune responses t o these antigens.