Mixture of peptides derived from hepatitis C virus, useful as vaccinating immunogen or diagnostic reagent, binds to the commonest Class II alleles, also new peptides

摘要

A mixture (A) comprising at least two peptides (I), from hepatitis C virus (HCV), with at least one being derived from protein C, is new. (A) binds to at least 4 different MHC (major histocompatibility complex) Class II molecules that have allelic frequency, in Caucasians, over 5%, with binding activity below 1000 nM. Independent claims are also included for: (1) (A) consisting of a fusion protein (FP) containing many (I); (2) a nucleic acid (II) that encodes FP; (3) a recombinant vector that contains (II); (4) a cell that is transfected with the vector of (3); (5) an anti-HCV immunogenic composition; (6) a vaccine containing the composition of (5); (7) specific peptides (Ia) from the C and NS3 peptides of HCV; (8) a diagnostic reagent containing at least one of (Ia) or (A), optionally labeled or complexed in the form of multimeric complexes; (9) evaluating the immunological status of a subject comprising detecting CD4+ T cells specific for C and/or NS3 peptides; and (10) selecting HCV-specific T lymphocytes.