Impaired Effector Function of Hepatitis C Virus-Specific CD8+ T Cells in Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection

The cellular immune response contributes to clearance of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and persists for decades after recovery from infection. The immunological basis for the inefficiency of the cellular immune response in chronically infected persons is not known. Here, we used four HLA-A2 tetramers, specific for two HCV core and two HCV NS3 epitopes, to investigate at the single-cell level effector function and phenotype of HCV-specific CD8+ T cells in 20 chronically infected and 12 long-term recovered patients. Overall, HCV-specific, tetramer+ T cells were more frequently found in PBMCs of chronically infected patients than in those of recovered patients. However, when compared with HCV-tetramer+ T cells of…

• DF
  Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
• NI
  National Institutes of Health
• NI
  National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
• NC
  NIH Clinical Center