Hepatitis C virus peptides obtained from the NS4 coding region and their use in diagnostic assays
US6165730A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 30, 1996 |
| Grant date | Dec 26, 2000 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 30, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01N2333/18
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
The etiological agent responsible for non-A, non-B hepatitis has been identified and termed hepatitis C virus (HCV). The HCV genome is a linear, positive-stranded RNA molecule with a length of approximately 9,400 nucleotides. With the exception of rather short untranslated regions at the termini, the genome consists of one large, uninterrupted, open reading frame encoding a polyprotein of approximately 3,000 amino acids. This polyprotein has been shown to be cleaved co-translationally into individual viral structural and non-structural (NS) regions. The structural protein region is further divided into capsid (Core) and envelope (E1 and E2) regions. The NS regions are divided into NS-1 to NS-5. The present invention is directed toward peptides derived from the HCV NS4 region that contain immunologically important epitopes. A series of biotinylated peptides were prepared by solid phase peptide synthesis and these peptides have proven useful for the detection of HCV-specific antisera.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.