Immune responses of blood donors to peptides of various lengths and those with genotypic sequence variations corresponding to the N‐terminal portion of the core protein of hepatitis C virus

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Abstract
Immune reactivities of blood donor sera with the peptides of various lengths (24, 30, 40 and 50 mer) and those with genotypic sequence variations in the N‐terminal portion of the core protein of hepatitis C virus (HCV) were compared by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays. It was found that a 40‐mer oligopeptide (amino acids 2–41) was recognized more frequently than other peptides even in serum samples that did not react with the C22‐3 (core) by the recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA‐II). On the other hand, a 30‐mer peptide (amino acids 1–30) had good correlation with viremia as confirmed by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In addition, four individuals showed the obvious differences in the immune responses to 30‐mer oligopep‐tides representing the 4 genotypic variations. As a result, some samples that were PCR‐positive but nonreactive by a commercial assay were found to react with short synthetic peptides in the N‐terminal portion of the core protein.