The Evaluation of Hepatitis C Virus Core Antigen in Immunized Balb/C Mice

Background: hepatitis infection represents one of the important causes of morbidity and mortality in developing countries, however there is not any effective vaccine against hepatitis c which is one of the significant problems in vaccine project.objectives: the aim of the present study is to evaluate the role of hcv core protein in inducing ifn-gamma secretion and tcl activities as a vaccine in balb/c mice.materials and methods: our previous cloned plasmid (hcv core gene into petduet-1) applied for protein expression in bacteria. the expressed and purified recombinant protein together with freund’s adjuvant was injected to 15 balb/c mice. the total igg and igg2a of immunized mice sera were evaluated after a week. two weeks after booster injection,we studied the proliferation and ifnγ secretion of spleens, inguinal and popliteal lymph nodes lymphocytes by elisa and elispot.results: the fsfc (frequency of spot forming cells) of secreting cells of immunized mice with hcv/core protein and sera igg2a were considerably higher than the control groups.conclusions: the core protein together with proper adjuvant can be a candidate vaccine against of hcv infection.