Caracterització de les propietats fisico-químiques de les proteïnes natives del virus de l'hepatitis C

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the most common cause of chronic viral infection in Spain and the causative agent of the majority of cases of chronic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma. However, most of our kwoledge of HCV has been generated by sequencing its entire genome and producing antigenic recombinant proteins. The present project is aimed at determinig the physicial and chemical properties of native HCV proteins using techniques such as electrophoresis, immunoblotting and microsequencing, and producing monoclonal and polyclonal antobodies against native HCV antigens. This project will continue the research that is being carried out in our laboratory on HCV purification and concentration, which has provided us with native HCV particles from infected human plasma in sufficient quantity and purity to achieve the goal that we are now proposing.