Epitopes of the NS3 protein of hepatitis C virus: Recognition in HLA-DR4 transgenic mice.

Summary Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects more than 180 million of the world’s population and causes a persistent infection that over decades can result in cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Treatment is only partially effective and control is likely only with the development of effective vaccines. Currently, only chimpanzees can be infected with HCV and alternative animal and tissue culture models are badly needed. We have used mice transgenic for HLA-DR and human CD4 to analyse the specificity of murine responses to the HCV NS3 antigen in an effort to determine whether the epitopes recognized correspond to those recognized by human T cells. Indeed, determinants mapped in transgenic mice overlap with those in a patient exposed to HCV through infection. This result provides hope that such an animal model may be a useful tool with which to analyse particular aspects of immune responses to HCV in vivo . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]