Changes in hypervariable region 1 of the envelope 2 glycoprotein of hepatitis C virus in children and adults with humoral immune defects

Umesh Gaud, Barbara Langer, Theoni Petropoulou, Howard C. Thomas, Peter Karayiannis

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The N-terminal end of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) envelope glycoprotein E2 contains a stretch of 27 amino acids that exhibit increased variability. This hypervariable region 1 (HVR-1), as it is normally referred to, is thought to contain epitopes that come under humoral immune attack. In the present study, 10 patients (5 children and 5 adults) with humoral immune defects and chronic HCV infection were investigated, to see how HVR-1 sequences behave over time in these patients who are unable to produce antibodies. Amplicons of this region showed little or no variation at all over time, indicating that quasispecies variation in this region is driven by the host's humoral immune response.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)350-356
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Medical Virology
Volume69
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2003

Keywords

  • Agammaglobulinaemia
  • Common variable immunodeficiency disease
  • Hepatitis C virus
  • Hypervariable region 1
  • XLA

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