Immune Responses in Rhesus M onkeys Vaccinated with M ulti·epit0pe Antigen of HCV and Challenged by HCV Virus
Abstract: It is a new approach to study and produce HCV vaccine by using multi-epitope antigen of HCV. In this study, multi-epitope antigen gene, PCX, which consists of 5 epitopes of HCV and an epitope of T cell stimulation o f tetanus toxoid, was expressed in E.coli. And rhesus monkeys were vaccinate d by expressed antigen and elicited the high humoral response, the titer of anti bodies to PCX was high to 1∶1000. In 60th week after vaccination, the titer of Abs was still to 1∶40. Meanwhile, positive human sera of HCV challenged vaccina ted monkeys after 6 weeks immunized, ALT value rose transiently in monkeys vacci nated by PCX. It was positive in monitoring RNA of HCV using RT-PCR in monkey s era. The result demonstrated that Rhesus monkey immunized by multi-epitope PCX could elicit high-level immune responses