An Optimized Hepatitis C Virus E2 Glycoprotein Core Adopts a Functional Homodimer That Efficiently Blocks Virus Entry.

ABSTRACT: The hepatitis C virus (HCV) envelope glycoprotein E2 is the major target of broadly neutralizing antibodies in vivo and is the focus of efforts in the rational design of a universal B cell vaccine against HCV. The E2 glycoprotein exhibits a high degree of amino acid variability which localizes to three discrete regions: hypervariable region 1 (HVR1), hypervariable region 2 (HVR2), and the intergenotypic variable region (igVR). All three variable regions contribute to immune evasion and/or isolate-specific structural variations, both important considerations for vaccine design. A high-resolution structural definition of the intact HCV envelope glycoprotein complex containing E1 and E2 remains to be elucidated, while crystallographic structures of a recombinant E2 ectodomain failed to resolv

SUBMITTER: McCaffrey K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5309951 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature