Mechanisms of Hepatitis C Virus Escape from Vaccine-Relevant Neutralizing Antibodies.

ABSTRACT: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major causative agent of acute and chronic hepatitis. It is estimated that 400,000 people die every year from chronic HCV infection, mostly from severe liver-related diseases such as cirrhosis and liver cancer. Although HCV was discovered more than 30 years ago, an efficient prophylactic vaccine is still missing. The HCV glycoprotein complex, E1/E2, is the principal target of neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) and, thus, is an attractive antigen for B-cell vaccine design. However, the high genetic variability of the virus necessitates the identification of conserved epitopes. Moreover, the high intrinsic mutational capacity of HCV allows the virus to continually escape broadly NAbs (bNAbs), which is likely to cause issues with vaccine-resistant variants. Several st

SUBMITTER: Velazquez-Moctezuma R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8004074 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature