A role for B cells to transmit Hepatitis C virus infection
Desombere, Isabelle Van Houtte, Freya Farhoudi, Ali Verhoye, Lieven Buysschaert, Caroline Gijbels, Yvonne Couvent, Sibyl Swinnen, Wilfried Van Vlierberghe, Hans Elewaut, André
Desombere, Isabelle
Van Houtte, Freya
Farhoudi, Ali
Verhoye, Lieven
Buysschaert, Caroline
Gijbels, Yvonne
Couvent, Sibyl
Swinnen, Wilfried
Van Vlierberghe, Hans
Elewaut, André
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2021-12-16
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Abstract
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is highly variable and transmits through infected blood to establish a chronic liver infection in the majority of patients. Our knowledge on the infectivity of clinical HCV strains is hampered by the lack of in vitro cell culture systems that support efficient viral replication. We and others have reported that HCV can associate with and infect immune cells and may thereby evade host immune surveillance and elimination. To evaluate whether B cells play a role in HCV transmission, we assessed the ability of B cells and sera from recent (<2 years) or chronic (≥ 2 years) HCV patients to infect humanized liver chimeric mice. HCV was transmitted by B cells from chronic infected patients whereas the sera were non-infectious. In contrast, B cells from recently infected patients failed to transmit HCV to the mice, whereas all serum samples were infectious. We observed an association between circulating anti-glycoprotein E1E2 antibodies and B cell HCV transmission. Taken together, our studies provide evidence for HCV transmission by B cells, findings that have clinical implications for prophylactic and therapeutic antibody-based vaccine design.
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Desombere I, Van Houtte F, Farhoudi A, Verhoye L, Buysschaert C, Gijbels Y, Couvent S, Swinnen W, Van Vlierberghe H, Elewaut A, Magri A, Stamataki Z, Meuleman P, McKeating JA, Leroux-Roels G. A Role for B Cells to Transmit Hepatitis C Virus Infection. Front Immunol. 2021 Dec 16;12:775098. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.775098
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