Newly found hepatitis C virus epitope

Abstract

The invention relates to the technology of bioinformatics and immunology and provides a newly found hepatitis C virus epitope. The sequence of the hepatitis C virus epitope is an epitope polypeptide P7(774-782)AAWYIKGRL. The invention also relates to the application of the epitope polypeptide to the preparation of medicaments for treating hepatitis C virus and to the preparation of hepatitis C virus vaccines. In-vivo and in-vitro experiments show that that the epitope has immunogenicity.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to bioinformatics and immunology technology, predicts the newly discovered antigenic epitope of hepatitis C virus, and preliminary in vivo and in vitro experiments prove that the antigenic epitope has immunogenicity. Background technique [0002] Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is one of the main pathogens that cause chronic liver disease. There are about 170 million to 200 million HCV infected people in the world. The HCV infection rate of the Chinese population is about 3.2%. It is estimated that there are more than 40 million infected people nationwide. After HCV infection, about 50% -85% turn into chronic hepatitis, of which 20% -30% develop into liver cirrhosis, and some turn into hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which seriously endangers human health and has become a global and severe public health problem. Hygiene issue. So far, there is still a lack of ideal antiviral treatment measures, and interferon treatment is not satisfactor...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0005] Due to the necessity and urgency of HCV vaccine research, since the HCV gene was cloned in 1989, people have been working on vaccine research, but the progress is slow.

Earlier, people focused on the development of HCV envelope glycoprotein or polypeptide subunit vaccines. Like HIV vaccine research, due to the highly variable nature of HCV envelope glycoproteins, it is possible to produce neutralizing antibodies to control virus infection and replication. Encounter difficulties

The main reasons why the HCV vaccine is difficult to achieve are summarized in the following three points: ① The HCV genome mutation rate is high, the virus has many quasi-species, lacks protective antibodies, and cannot prevent reinfection of chimpanzees and humans, and the research of traditional preventive vaccines has encountered difficulties; ② HCV has poor replication ability and weak infectivity, so the virus titer in the body is low, and it is not easy to culture in vitro. The process of virus replication infection and pathogenesis are still unclear, and some proteins encoded by HCV, such as core protein and NS protein It may be related to the carcinogenicity of HCV, and the selection and strength of immunogens are limited; ③ There is a lack of ideal cell models for in vitro infection. Animal models include chimpanzees, and other animals, even primates, such as baboons and rhesus monkeys. etc. cannot be infected by HCV, limiting studies for vaccine evaluation

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