Immune responses against hepatitis C virus genotype 3a virus-like particles in mice: A novel VLP prime-adenovirus boost strategy.

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection represents a major health threat to global population. In India, approximately 15-20% of cases of chronic liver diseases are caused by HCV infection. Although, new drug treatments hold great promise for HCV eradication in infected individuals, the treatments are highly expensive.

The stability of secreted, acid-labile H77/JFH-1 hepatitis C virus (HCV) particles is altered by patient isolate genotype 1a p7 sequences.

Secreted infectious particles generated by the genotype 2a JFH-1 hepatitis C virus infectious clone are resistant to acidic pH, whereas intracellular virions remain acid-labile. Thus, JFH-1 particles are thought to undergo pH maturation as they are secreted from the cell. Here, we demonstrate that both infectious intracellular and secreted genotype 1a (H77)/JFH-1 chimaeric particles display enhanced acid sensitivity compared with JFH-1, although pH maturation still occurs upon release.

Efficient dendrimer-DNA complexation and gene delivery vector properties of nitrogen-core poly(propyl ether imine) dendrimer in mammalian cells.

Dendrimers as vectors for gene delivery were established, primarily by utilizing few prominent dendrimer types so far. We report herein studies of DNA complexation efficacies and gene delivery vector properties of a nitrogen-core poly(propyl ether imine) (PETIM) dendrimer, constituted with 22 tertiary amine internal branches and 24 primary amines at the periphery. The interaction of the dendrimer with pEGFPDNA was evaluated through UV-vis, circular dichroism (CD) spectral studies, ethidium bromide fluorescence emission quenching, thermal melting, and gel retardation assays, from which most changes to DNA structure during complexation was found to occur at a weight ratio of dendrimer:DNA ∼ 2:1.

Monoclonal antibodies against Hepatitis C genotype 3a virus like particle inhibit virus entry in cell culture system.

The envelope protein (E1-E2) of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major component of the viral structure. The glycosylated envelope protein is considered to be important for initiation of infection by binding to cellular receptor(s) and also known as one of the major antigenic targets to host immune response. The present study was aimed at identifying mouse monoclonal antibodies which inhibit binding of virus like particles of HCV to target cells.