In Vivo Clearance of Hepatitis C Virus Nonstructural 3/4A–Expressing Hepatocytes by DNA Vaccine–Primed Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes

Abstract excerpt

A key question in the development of a therapeutic vaccine against hepatitis C virus (HCV) is whether vaccine-primed T cells enter the liver and eliminate HCV-expressing hepatocytes. In the absence of an infectious small-animal model, we evaluated liver homing of vaccine-primed T cells in mice with transient hepatic transgene expression of the HCV nonstructural 3/4A (NS3/4A) protein. We found that T cells primed...