Abstract
Vaccination of BALB/c mice with pIDKCo, a plasmid containing the coding sequence for the first 176 amino acids of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein, induced both humoral and cellular specific immune responses. Particularly, the level of anti-core antibodies increased slowly with time up to a mean value above 1:8000 that was generally superior than that found in anti-HCV positive individuals. Six out of nine anti-HCV positive human sera were able to inhibit at different extent the binding of mouse anti-core sera to a recombinant capsid protein. Our results show that it is possible to elicit a potent humoral and cellular immune response against the HCV core antigen in mice following DNA immunization.
MeSH terms
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Animals
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Binding, Competitive
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Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / methods
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Female
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Hepacivirus / genetics
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Hepacivirus / immunology*
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Hepatitis C Antibodies / biosynthesis
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Humans
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Immunity, Cellular
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In Vitro Techniques
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Lymphocyte Activation
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Mice
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Mice, Inbred BALB C
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Peptide Fragments / genetics
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Peptide Fragments / immunology
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Plasmids / genetics
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T-Lymphocytes / immunology
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Vaccines, DNA / genetics
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Vaccines, DNA / immunology
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Vaccines, DNA / pharmacology*
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Viral Core Proteins / genetics
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Viral Core Proteins / immunology*
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Viral Hepatitis Vaccines / genetics
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Viral Hepatitis Vaccines / immunology
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Viral Hepatitis Vaccines / pharmacology*
Substances
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Hepatitis C Antibodies
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Peptide Fragments
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Vaccines, DNA
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Viral Core Proteins
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Viral Hepatitis Vaccines
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nucleocapsid protein, Hepatitis C virus