Published in:
01-11-2012 | Brief Report
The pan-genotype specificity of the hepatitis C virus anti-core monoclonal antibody C7-50 is contingent on the quasispecies profile of a population
Published in: Archives of Virology | Issue 11/2012
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The inter/intra-genotype quasispecies makeup of hepatitis C virus (HCV) has retarded the development of antibodies capable of pan-genotype reactivity. Mutations, even in conserved domains, are tolerated to a degree. In this report, we characterise the pan-genotype specificity of the commercially available monoclonal anti-HCV core antibody C7-50. We demonstrate the antibody’s ability to detect HCV core protein following infection of Huh7 cells with serum-derived HCV of genotypes 2-5 and that a single-site polymorphism in a genotype 3a core amino acid sequence is sufficient to disrupt antibody recognition of the epitope. This same polymorphism is a feature of genotype 3 viruses.