Neutralizing antibodies to hepatitis C virus (HCV) in immune globulins derived from anti-HCV-positive plasma.

ABSTRACT: The role of humoral immunity in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections is uncertain. Nevertheless, there is increasing evidence for neutralizing antibodies to HCV in the serum or plasma of chronically infected individuals. Immune globulins prepared by ethanol fractionation of plasma had long been considered safe until a commercial immune globulin product, Gammagard, prepared from plasma from which units containing anti-HCV had been excluded, transmitted HCV to recipients. Studies suggested that the exclusion might have removed neutralizing antibodies from the plasma and hence compromised the safety of the resulting immune globulins. In the present study, by using chimpanzees and a recently validated in vitro system based on neutralization of infectious HCV pseudoparticles, we found broadly rea

SUBMITTER: Yu MY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC419670 | biostudies-literature | 2004 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature