Recombinant antigen from the NS3 region of the hepatitis C virus
AssigneeRoche Diagnostics GmbH
InventorsChristoph Seidel, Ursula-Henrike Wienhues, Urban Schmitt, Manfred Motz, Michael Wiedmann, Barbara Upmeier, Erwin Soutschek
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention concerns a polypeptide which is composed of the amino acids 1207±10 to 1488±10 of a hepatitis C virus and of less than 20 foreign amino acids and the use of this polypeptide as an antigen in an immunological test.
Claims17
Method for determining a hepatitis C virus specific antibody in a sample, comprising:
- incubating said sample with at least one peptide derived from a hepatitis C virus protein NS3 region wherein said at least one peptide has higher immunological activity with said hepatitis C virus specific antibody than a polypeptide consisting of an amino acid sequence from an NS3 protein region of a naturally occurring hepatitis C virus, wherein said at least one peptide has at least one covalently modified cysteine residue or at least one cysteine residue has been replaced by a different amino acid to form a peptide having a sequence not found in any HCV isolate, and determining binding of said antibody to said at least one peptide.
A method for determining a hepatitis C virus specific antibody in a sample, comprising incubating said sample, under reducing conditions with an isolated polypeptide which consists of (a) at least amino acids 21-282 of SEQ ID NO:
- 9 and no more than amino acids 1-302 of SEQ ID NO:
- 9 and (b) a contiguous sequence of less than 20 amino acids which is not found in hepatitis C virus proteins, wherein (b) is concatenated to the N or C terminus of (a), or an isolated polypeptide which is at least 90% identical to SEQ ID NO:
- 9, wherein at least one cysteine of said amino acids is modified, either by replacing it with another natural or artificial amino acid, or bv a modifying group and determining any binding to said polypeptide as a determination of said antibody.
Method for determining a hepatitis C virus specific antibody in a sample comprising incubating said sample, under reducing conditions which prevent formulation of covalent, cross linked molecular aggregates, with at least one polypeptide derived from a hepatitis C virus NS3 region, consisting of at least amino acids 21-282 and no more than amino acids 1-302 of SEQ ID NO:
- 9 which is immunologically reactive with said hepatitis C virus specific antibody, and determining binding of said antibody to said peptide.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.