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Establishment and characterization of NS3 protein-specific T-cell clones from a patient with chronic hepatitis C

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Biomedical Science

Abstract

Our previous study showed dominant proliferative response of peripheral mononuclear cells to hepatitis C virus (HCV) nonstructural (NS-3) (T9, from aa 1188 to 1493) in chronically infected patients. Six T9-specific T-cell clones derived in an HCV patient were established and studied for the antigen specificity and the ability of augmentation of in vitro antibody production. All these cloned T-cell lines responded exclusively to T9 antigen and could help autologous B cells in producing anti-T9 antibody in vitro. Cytokine mRNAs of these T cells was detected by polymerase chain reaction and predominant IL-2 and IFN-γ production was noted. In addition, further elucidation of T-cell antigenic determinant and MHC restriction suggested that these T-cell clones recognized at least two different T-cell antigenic determinants within the NS-3 region in an HLA DQ2-restricted manner. We believe characterization of HCV-specific T-cell responses, especially T-cell epitope mapping and cytokine production pattern, may shed light on further understanding the pathogenic mechanism and designing therapy for HCV infection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan ROC

    Bor-Luen Chiang, Jo-Man Wang, Shing-Fen Kao, Chien-Hsiung Pan & Pei-Jer Chen

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan ROC

    Pei-Ming Yang &  Ding-Shinn Chen

  3. Hepatitis Research Center, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan ROC

    Lih-Hwa Hwang &  Ding-Shinn Chen

  4. Process Development Division, Development Center for Biotechnology, Taipei, Taiwan ROC

    Wei-Kuang Chi

  5. Hepatitis Research Center, National Taiwan University Hospital, No. 1, Chang-Teh Street, 100, Taipei, Taiwan/ROC

    Ding-Shinn Chen

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  1. Bor-Luen Chiang
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Chiang, BL., Yang, PM., Hwang, LH. et al. Establishment and characterization of NS3 protein-specific T-cell clones from a patient with chronic hepatitis C. J Biomed Sci 5, 290–296 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02255861

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02255861

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