ArticleThe Journal of infectious diseases2012
Spontaneous clearance of chronic hepatitis C virus infection is associated with appearance of neutralizing antibodies and reversal of T-cell exhaustion.
Article in The Journal of infectious diseases, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 91 papers.
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Who cites it
91 citing papers in PubMed.
- CD4+ T cell restoration and control of hepatitis C virus replication after childbirth.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2020Trial
- Peripheral PD-1Frontiers in immunology · 2019Trial
- Chronic infection perturbs the affinity hierarchy of antiviral B cells.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Targets of protective immunity and opportunities in hepatitis C virus vaccine development.Nature reviews. Immunology · 2026Review
- mAbClust with AlphaFold 3 avoids hallucinations to define a quaternary broadly neutralizing HCV epitope.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Detection of anti-HCV antibodies in the clinical classification and epidemiological surveillance of HCV infection.Molecular biology reports · 2025Review
- Recent Advances in mRNA-Based Vaccines Against Several Hepatitis Viruses.Biological procedures online · 2025Review
- Exploring T-Cell Immunity to Hepatitis C Virus: Insights from Different Vaccine and Antigen Presentation Strategies.Vaccines · 2024Review
- Convergent evolution and targeting of diverse E2 epitopes by human broadly neutralizing antibodies are associated with HCV clearance.Immunity · 2024Article
- Article
- Hepatitis C virus hypervariable region 1 antibodies interrupt E2-SR-B1 interaction to suppress viral infection.iScience · 2023Article
- Convergent antibody responses are associated with broad neutralization of hepatitis C virus.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Article
- The Neutralizing Antibody Responses of Individuals That Spontaneously Resolve Hepatitis C Virus Infection.Viruses · 2022Article
- Spontaneous Clearance of Drug-Resistant Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection.Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.) · 2021Article
- Vaccine-elicited CD4 T cells prevent the deletion of antiviral B cells in chronic infection.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Article
- Review
- Review
- Antibody Responses in Hepatitis C Infection.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine · 2021Review
31 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundHepatitis C virus (HCV) readily establishes chronic infection with exhaustion of HCV-specific T cells and escape from neutralizing antibodies. Spontaneous recovery from chronic infection is rare and has never to our knowledge been studied immunologically.
methodsWe prospectively studied, from prior to infection through >2 years of follow-up, cytokines, HCV-specific T cells, and antibodies, as well as viral sequence evolution in a white male who spontaneously cleared HCV genotype 1a after 65 weeks.
resultsSignificant alanine aminotransferase and plasma cytokine elevation and broad HCV-specific T-cell responses did not result in HCV clearance in the acute phase. Frequency and effector function of HCV-specific T cells decreased thereafter, and HCV titers stabilized as is typical for the chronic phase. HCV clearance after 65 weeks followed the appearance of neutralizing antibodies at week 48 and was associated with reversal of HCV-specific T-cell exhaustion, as evidenced by reduced programmed death-1 (PD-1) expression and improved T-cell function. Clearance occurred without inflammation or superinfection with hepatitis B virus, human cytomegalovirus virus, influenza, and Epstein-Barr virus.
conclusionsT-cell exhaustion is reversible at least in the first 2 years of chronic HCV infection, and this reversion in conjunction with neutralizing antibodies may clear HCV. These findings are relevant for immunotherapy of chronic infections.
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