Comprehensive analysis of the intrahepatic virus-specific CD8+ T-cell response during chronic hepatitis C virus infection

In order to define the actual breadth and magnitude of the virus-specific CD8+-T-cell response during chronic hepatitis C virus infection, we have studied this response in the liver and blood by using a set of 441 overlapping peptides spanning the entire HCV polyprotein. Peptides identified in screening ELISPOTs were further tested by intracellular IFNγ staining. Multispecific virus-specific CD8+-T-cell responses were detectable in most chronically infected patients, targeting an average of three different epitopes. Importantly, all epitope-specific CD8+-T-cell responses detectable in the blood were also present…