Hepatitis C Virus Induces Regulatory T Cells by Naturally Occurring Viral Variants to Suppress T Cell Responses

Abstract EN

Regulatory T cell markers are increased in chronically infected individuals with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), but to date, the induction and maintenance of Tregs in HCV infection has not been clearly defined.

In this paper, we demonstrate that naturally occurring viral variants suppress T cell responses to cognate NS3358–375 in an antigen-specific manner.

Of four archetypal variants, S370P induced regulatory T cell markers in comparison to NS3358–375-stimulated CD4 T cells.

Further, the addition of variant-specific CD4 T cells back into a polyclonal culture in a dose-dependent manner inhibited the T cell response.

These results suggest that HCV is able to induce antigen-specific regulatory T cells to suppress the antiviral T cell response in an antigen-specific manner, thus contributing to a niche within the host that could be conducive to HCV persistence.