Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Cellular immune responses against hepatitis C virus
T2 - the evidence base 2002
AU - Ward, S
AU - Lauer, G
AU - Isba, R
AU - Walker, B
AU - Klenerman, P
PY - 2002
Y1 - 2002
N2 - Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an RNA virus which is estimated to persistently infect about 170 million people worldwide. After acute infection, there is an initial period during which long-term outcome is decided. There is strong evidence that the cellular immune responses, involving both CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes, are involved at this stage and it is their effectiveness which determines outcome. What is not understood is what determines their effectiveness. The most important component of this is likely to be some aspect of epitope selection, itself dictated by host MHC. Thus, to understand host immunity to HCV, we need to have a detailed understanding of the peptides involved in T lymphocyte responses. In this review, we discuss the peptide epitopes that have been identified so far, and their potential significance. We relate this to a scheme of host defence which may be useful for understanding natural and vaccine-induced immunity.
AB - Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an RNA virus which is estimated to persistently infect about 170 million people worldwide. After acute infection, there is an initial period during which long-term outcome is decided. There is strong evidence that the cellular immune responses, involving both CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes, are involved at this stage and it is their effectiveness which determines outcome. What is not understood is what determines their effectiveness. The most important component of this is likely to be some aspect of epitope selection, itself dictated by host MHC. Thus, to understand host immunity to HCV, we need to have a detailed understanding of the peptides involved in T lymphocyte responses. In this review, we discuss the peptide epitopes that have been identified so far, and their potential significance. We relate this to a scheme of host defence which may be useful for understanding natural and vaccine-induced immunity.
KW - HCV CD8+ T lymphocyte CD4+ T lymphocyte HLA epitope immune escape
U2 - 10.1046/j.1365-2249.2002.01840.x
DO - 10.1046/j.1365-2249.2002.01840.x
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 11985510
VL - 128
SP - 195
EP - 203
JO - Clinical and Experimental Immunology
JF - Clinical and Experimental Immunology
SN - 0009-9104
IS - 2
ER -