HCVACC-STRAT: C1 - Vaccine delivery systems for the development of preventive and therapeutic interventions against hepatitis C

• Forschungsstelle: EU FRP
• Projektnummer: 99.0363
• Projekttitel Englisch: HCVACC-STRAT: C1 - Vaccine delivery systems for the development of preventive and therapeutic interventions against hepatitis C

Schlüsselwörter (Englisch)

Hepatitis C; protective immunity; vaccine development; induction of cellular immunity; therapeutic vaccine

Alternative Projektnummern (Englisch)

EU project number: QLK2-1999-00356

Forschungsprogramme (Englisch)

EU-programme: 5. Frame Research Programme - 1.1.2 Control of infectious diseases

Kurzbeschreibung (Englisch)

See abstract

Partner und Internationale Organisationen (Englisch)

Coordinator: Universität Leiden (NL)

Abstract (Englisch)

It is the overall objective of this cluster to contribute to the development of preventive and therapeutic vaccines against hepatitis C virus infection. Within this project, the immune response during natural infection with HCV in patients with different courses of infection shall be studied. The emphasis will be on those aspects of the immune response which are of direct relevance for the development of vaccines and the monitoring of vaccine success.
New techniques for the characterisation of virusspecific T cells and virus-neutralising antibodies, which have only recently become available, are employed to characterise (i) naturally occurring immune mechanisms that are associated with viral clearance and immunity; (ii) immunoregulatory and viral factors leading to viral persistence which may interfere with the induction of a protective immune response; (iii) the antiviral immune response during chronic HCV infection which is unable to clear the infection but will be interacting with attempts at the induction of protective immune responses. Although considerable work has been done on the HCV specific immune response during the last several years, the relevance of neutralising antibodies and HCV-specific cytotoxic T cells is still poorly understood. Due to the difficulties in defining CD8+ T cell epitopes it is presently not known whether important CTL epitopes can be studied in a given patient and this is one reason why the impact of viral mutations on the outcome of HCV infection is still debated.
During the last year, several new immunological techniques have revolutionised the field of viral immunology. Apart from classical tests we are using a new technique, the enzyme linked immunospot (Elispot) which allows the detection of specific cytokine secretion at a single cell level. This assay has been successfully adapted for characterisation of both virus specific DC4+ as wells as CD8+ T cells.
Our group is focusing on the identification of new CD8+ T cell eptitopes and definition of their relative immunodominance as well as on the clarification of the contribution of virus specific CD8+ T lymphocytes for viral clearance in acute hepatitis C.

Datenbankreferenzen (Englisch)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 99.0363