Adaptive immune responses to hepatitis C virus: from viral immunobiology to a vaccine
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Robert Thimme
Abstract
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes chronic infection in approximately two-thirds of cases, leading to chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, liver disease, liver failure, and hepatocellular carcinoma in a substantial proportion of the 170 million HCV-infected individuals worldwide. It is generally accepted that the cellular immune response plays the most important role in determining the outcome of HCV infection. First, vigorous, multispecific and sustained CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses are associated with viral clearance. Second, depletion studies in chimpanzees, the only other host of HCV besides humans, have shown that both CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells are required for virus elimination. Third, the host's human leukocyte antigen alleles, which restrict the repertoire of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses, influence the outcome of infection. Of note, protective immunity has been demonstrated in population-based studies, as well as in experimentally infected chimpanzees. Thus, a detailed understanding of the mechanisms contributing to the failure of the antiviral immune response should allow successful development of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccination strategies.
©2008 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Guest Editorial
- Novel paradigms in vaccine development: from small pox eradication to therapeutic vaccines
- Highlight: 3rd Semmering Conference 2007
- Adaptive immune responses to hepatitis C virus: from viral immunobiology to a vaccine
- Dendritic cell subtypes as primary targets of vaccines: the emerging role and cross-talk of pattern recognition receptors
- Novel strategies to identify biomarkers in tuberculosis
- Not to wake a sleeping giant: new insights into host-pathogen interactions identify new targets for vaccination against latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection
- Lipopolysaccharide: a tool and target in enterobacterial vaccine development
- The coming of age of virus-like particle vaccines
- Maintenance of serological memory
- Adjuvant activity of type I interferons
- Japanese encephalitis vaccines – needs, flaws and achievements
- Analysis of the human cytomegalovirus pp65-directed T-cell response in healthy HLA-A2-positive individuals
- Non-regulatory CD8+CD45RO+CD25+ T-lymphocytes may compensate for the loss of antigen-inexperienced CD8+CD45RA+ T-cells in old age
- Pre-clinical development of cell culture (Vero)-derived H5N1 pandemic vaccines
- Construction of an encapsulated ESAT-6-based anti-TB DNA vaccine and evaluation of its immunogenic properties
- Review
- RNA switches regulate initiation of translation in bacteria
- Protein Structure and Function
- Inhibition of bacterial oxidases by formamide and analogs
- Modeling of variant copies of subunit D1 in the structure of photosystem II from Thermosynechococcus elongatus
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Guest Editorial
- Novel paradigms in vaccine development: from small pox eradication to therapeutic vaccines
- Highlight: 3rd Semmering Conference 2007
- Adaptive immune responses to hepatitis C virus: from viral immunobiology to a vaccine
- Dendritic cell subtypes as primary targets of vaccines: the emerging role and cross-talk of pattern recognition receptors
- Novel strategies to identify biomarkers in tuberculosis
- Not to wake a sleeping giant: new insights into host-pathogen interactions identify new targets for vaccination against latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection
- Lipopolysaccharide: a tool and target in enterobacterial vaccine development
- The coming of age of virus-like particle vaccines
- Maintenance of serological memory
- Adjuvant activity of type I interferons
- Japanese encephalitis vaccines – needs, flaws and achievements
- Analysis of the human cytomegalovirus pp65-directed T-cell response in healthy HLA-A2-positive individuals
- Non-regulatory CD8+CD45RO+CD25+ T-lymphocytes may compensate for the loss of antigen-inexperienced CD8+CD45RA+ T-cells in old age
- Pre-clinical development of cell culture (Vero)-derived H5N1 pandemic vaccines
- Construction of an encapsulated ESAT-6-based anti-TB DNA vaccine and evaluation of its immunogenic properties
- Review
- RNA switches regulate initiation of translation in bacteria
- Protein Structure and Function
- Inhibition of bacterial oxidases by formamide and analogs
- Modeling of variant copies of subunit D1 in the structure of photosystem II from Thermosynechococcus elongatus
