Abstract
AIM:To analyze the neutralizing activity of antibodies against E1 region of hepatitis C virus (HCV).Specific polyclonal antibody was raised via immunization of New Zealand rabbits with a synthetic peptide that had been derived from the E1 region of HCV and was shown to be highly conserved among HCV published genotypes.METHODS:Hyper-immune HCV E1 antibodies were incubated over night at 4℃ with serum samples positive for HCV RNA,with viral loads ranging from 615 to 3.2 million IU/ mL.Treated sera were incubated with HepG2 cells for 90 min.Blocking of viral binding and entry into cells by anti E1 antibody were tested by means of RT-PCR and flow cytometry.RESULTS:Direct immunostaining using FITC conjugated E1 antibody followed by Flow cytometric analysis showed reduced mean fluorescence intensity in samples pre-incubated with E1 antibody compared with untreated samples.Furthermore,13 out of 18 positive sera (72%) showed complete inhibition of infectivity as detected by RT-PCR.CONCLUSION:In house produced E1 antib