Increased Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte Epitope Variant Cross-Recognition and Functional Avidity Are Associated with Hepatitis C Virus Clearance

• DOI: 10.1128/jvi.02252-07
• Publication Date: 2008-01-10T01:46:15Z
• Authors: Daniel Yerly; David Heckerman; Todd M. Allen; John V. Chisholm; Kellie Faircloth; Caitlyn H. Linde; Nicole Frahm; Joerg Timm; Werner J. Pichler; Andreas Cerny; Christian Brander
• Keywords: Avidity; CTL*

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) clearance has been associated with reduced viral evolution in targeted cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes, suggesting that HCV clearers may mount CTL responses a superior ability to recognize epitope variants and prevent immune escape. Here, 40 HCV-infected subjects were tested 406 10-mer peptides covering the vast majority of sequence diversity spanning 197-residue region NS3 protein. mounted significantly broader higher functional avidity wider variant cross-recognition capacity than nonclearers. These observations have important implications for vaccine approaches need induce high-avidity vivo.