Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Science - Department of Biochemistry

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the major cause of chronic liver disease as well as the major indication for liver transplantation worldwide. In chronic HCV infection weak and dysfunctional T-cell response directed at narrow range of viral epitopes, inhibited type 1 and 2 interferon production were observed. Under a condition of weaken immune response, selective outgrowth of minor subpopulation to dominance was reported in vivo. Moreover altered viral receptor usage in favor of CD81 receptor, and sensitivity of viral CD81 binding site(s) to antibody neutralization was evident in vitro. Given, current standard of care is not completely effective, broadly cross-neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) directed against HCV/E2 represent a promising tool for the study of virus-host interaction as well as for the development of effective prophylactic and therapeutic approaches. Aim: (1) Investigating the evolution and coexistence of viral variants with accessible 412-419 site (Ep-1) on the viral envelope and whether such evolved viral variants is sensitive to experimentally produced anti-Ep-1 antibodies (2) Assessment of potential of anti-Ep-1antibodies in immunosorptive resin to remove as much as possible of diverse vireamia in clinical samples from patients with chronic HCV infection. Results: The current study results on enrolled thirty patients with chronic HCV infection has revealed a significant removal of vireamia in twenty chronically infected cases while ten cases showed non apparent reduction in vireamia. Polyclonal antibody to S416 Ep-1 peptide doesn't bind to and remove the resistant vireamia in resistant ten cases

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