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About the Authors:
Milena Lange
Contributed equally to this work with: Milena Lange, Melanie Fiedler
Affiliation: Institute of Virology, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
Melanie Fiedler
Contributed equally to this work with: Milena Lange, Melanie Fiedler
Affiliation: Institute of Virology, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
Dorothea Bankwitz
Affiliation: Division of Experimental Virology, TWINCORE, Hannover, Germany
William Osburn
Affiliation: Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
Sergei Viazov
Affiliation: Institute of Virology, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
Olena Brovko
Affiliation: Institute of Virology, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
Abdel-Rahman Zekri
Affiliation: Virology and Immunology Unit, National Cancer Institute, Cairo, Egypt
Yury Khudyakov
Affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Michael Nassal
Affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine II, University Hospital Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
Paul Pumpens
Affiliation: Department of Recombinant biotechnology, Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre, Riga, Latvia
Thomas Pietschmann
Affiliation: Division of Experimental Virology, TWINCORE, Hannover, Germany
Jörg Timm
Affiliation: Institute of Virology, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
Michael Roggendorf
Affiliation: Institute of Virology, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
Andreas Walker
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliation: Institute of Virology, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
Introduction
At present, more than 180 million people worldwide are chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Despite many efforts (for review see [1]), there is still no vaccine against HCV. Only 30% of infected patients can spontaneously resolve the infection, and CD8+ T cells are the key component for this resolution [2]. However, neutralizing antibodies are also important in protecting people against HCV infection. Studies with HCV pseudoparticles (HCVpp) and cell culture-derived HCV (HCVcc) showed that neutralizing antibodies develop in spontaneous resolvers [3] and that rapid induction of neutralizing antibodies is associated with viral control [4], [5]. There is also evidence that intravenous drug users (IDUs) who have previously recovered from HCV infection are more likely than HCV-naïve IDUs to resolve the infection. Again, this resolution is associated with high titers of broadly neutralizing antibodies [6]–[8].
Given the importance of both cellular and humoral immune responses for protection against chronic HCV infection, a successful vaccine should be able...