Comparative Immunogenicity in Rabbits of the Polypeptides Encoded by the 5′ Terminus of Hepatitis C Virus RNA

Figure 2

Antibody responses raised after immunization of rabbits with polypeptides encoded by the 5′ terminus of HCV genomic RNA. Maximum titer of antibodies against the immunogens (a); kinetics of the development of specific antibody response; controls represent rabbits mock-immunized with adjuvant alone; serum reactivity was tested by ELISA on plates coated with core 1–173 and F-protein (b); reactivity in Western blotting of hyperimmune sera raised against F-protein (serum of rabbit 91, (c)) and HCV core 1–173 (serum of rabbit 93, (d)). Western blotting was done with hyperimmune sera of rabbits collected by the end of immunization and diluted 1 : 10⁴. Lanes in panels (c and d) represent outer surface protein BB0689 of B. burgdorferi carrying 6xHis-tag (2.5 µg, lane 1), lysozyme (2.5 µg, lane 2), HBcAg (2.5 µg, lane 3), core 1–173 (0.5, 1, and 2.5 µg, lanes 4–6, resp.), and F-protein (0.5, 1, and 2.5 µg, lanes 7–9, resp.). PageRuler Plus Prestained Protein Ladder (Thermo Scientific, lane M). Position of molecular mass markers is given on the left.

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