Hypervariable region diversity of hepatitis C virus and humoral response: Comparison between patients with or without cirrhosis

To investigate the potential clinical utility of antibody response to HVR1 of HCV, the genomic and amino acid diversity of HVR1 was compared between t wo groups of four chronic HCV carriers with or without liver cirrhosis. Pep tides corresponding to the deduced COOH- and NH2-terminal amino acid sequen ces of HVR1 were synthesised to assess the reactivity of patient sera to au tologous and homologous HVR1 epitopes by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. HCV chronic carriers had significantly more frequent cross-reactivity with homologous C- than N-terminal HVR1 peptides. Twelve cirrhotic and eleven n oncirrhotic patients had a similar frequency of cross-reactivity with eithe r C- or N-terminal HVR1 peptides. However, noncirrhotic patients had a sign ificantly higher level of C-terminal HVR1 antibody cross-reactivity than ci rrhotic patients. In HCV chronic carriers, the magnitude of the immune resp onse to but not the frequency of cross-reactivity with C-terminus HVR1 pept ides differ between patients with and without liver cirrhosis. (C) 1999 Wil ey-Liss, Inc.