the present invention provides a dna molecule coding for a polypeptide displaying the antigenicity of an hcv core antigen protein . the dna molecule is isolated from nucleonic acid sequences present in the plasma of an hcv infected patient , and included the steps of isolating the viral particles from the patient &# 39 ; s plasma , extracting and purifying the viral nucleic acid sequences , and then cloning the desired dna molecule via a polymerase chain reaction ( pcr ) technique . the primers used for cloning were the cloned dna molecule is subject to a hybridization with original hcv particles for identification . the molecule thus obtained is designated en - 80 - 2 . the dna sequence of the molecule en - 80 - 2 is given in fig1 a ( seq . id no . 3 ). the dna molecule is derived from the genome of the hcv nucleocapsid and envelope regions and has 669 bp . portions of the dna molecule are useful as probes to diagnose the presence of hcv nucleic acids in samples . the dna molecule of the present invention is inserted into an appropriate vector to form an expression vector . the vector can be a plasmid , bacteriophage or other dna sequence which is able to replicate in a host cell . the preferable vector is a plasmid with the promoter lac . referring to fig2 we have shown an expression plasmid , pen - 2 , constructed by a vehicle plasmid and the dna molecule of the present invention . an appropriate host is tansformed with an expression vector containing the dna molecule of the invention and the polypeptide displaying the antigenicity of an hcv core antigen protein can be produced in the transformed host . a process for producing the polypeptide displaying the antigenicity of an hcv core antigen has been established . the invention also provides a polypeptide displaying the antigenicity of an hcv core antigen protein . the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide is given in fig1 b ( seq . id no . 4 ). the polypeptide has a molecular weight of about 25 , 000 as measured by electrophoresis through a sodium dodecyl sulfate - polyacrylamide gel and is deduced to have about 220 amino acids . the ability of the obtained polypeptide to bind to hcv antibodies is confirmed by western blotting . the polypeptide is reactive with the sera of patients with hepatitis c but not reactive with the sera of persons without hepatitis c . this fact suggests that the polypeptide capable of detecting the presence of hcv antibodies in samples holds a potential in diagnosis of hepatitis c . additionally , the polypeptides displaying the antigenicity of an hcv core antigen , or an inactivated preparation or an attenuated preparation thereof , can be formulated in an immunogenically effective amount as vaccines for prevention of hcv infection . the method for detecting hcv antibodies in samples is included in the invention . the method is characterized by the hcv core antigen &# 39 ; s capability of binding to hcv antibodies as a probe . the method can be carried out by immunoassay or western blotting . a preferred method is solid - phase immunoassay . a solid phase , such as microtiter plates , beads and semipermeable membranes can be used to carry out the immunoassay . substances useful as a label include enzymes , isotopes , fluorescent materials and any other materials which can be directly detected . the immunoassay is conveniently achieved by a sandwich method , such as an enzyme - linked immunosorbent assay ( elisa ). the elisa comprises : 1 ) coating the polypeptide of the present invention onto a solid phase , 2 ) incubating a sample suspected of containing hcv antibodies with the polypeptide coated onto said solid phase under conditions which allow the formation of an antigen - antibody complex , 3 ) adding an anti - antibody ( such as anti - igg ) conjugated with a label to be captured by the resulting antigen - antibody complex bound to the solid phase , and 4 ) measuring the captured label and determining whether the sample has hcv antibodies . an alternative assay can be carried out by using the polypeptide of the invention combined with an hcv nonstructural protein as a probe . the assay is thought to be more specific and sensitive . the invention further provides a kit for analyzing samples for the presence of hcv antibodies . the kit comprises a polypeptide of the invention and an appropriate solid phase . preferably , the polypeptide is coated onto the solid phase . the present invention also provides monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies directed against said hcv core antigen protein . the antibodies are produced by using the polypeptide of the invention as an immunogen through standard procedures for preparing a hybridoma and / or conventional methods . the obtained antibodies are potentially useful for developing a method for detecting hcv . the following examples are offered to aid in understanding the present invention and are not to be construed as limiting the scope thereof . the plasma of the patients infected with hepatitis c virus are collected and ultracentrifuged at 4 ° c . and then the viral particles are obtained . subsequently , the viral nucleic acid ( rna ) is extracted and purified from the viral particles by using guanidine isothiocyanate and acidic phenol . ( ii ) 5 &# 39 ;- gaattcggtgtgcatgatcatgtccgc - 3 &# 39 ; ( seq . id no . 2 ) are used as primers in the subsequent cloning steps . a single stranded antisense dna molecule is produced using primer ( ii ) and reverse transcriptase and then the rna template is replaced with the corresponding dna molecule ( using primer ( i )) to produce a double stranded dna molecule . the double stranded dna molecule is amplified by the pcr method using taq polymerase . the cloned dna molecule was subjected to a hybridization with original hcv particles for identification . the obtained molecule was designated en - 80 - 2 . the dna sequence of the molecule en - 80 - 2 is given in fig1 a ( seq . id no . 3 ). the dna molecule was derived from the genome of hcv nucleocapsid and envelope regions and has 669 bp . the molecule en - 80 - 2 is treated with restriction endonucleases bam hi and ecori to obtain a transposon containing said hcv cdna . the obtained transposon is inserted into a vehicle plasmid which is first cleaved with restriction endonucleases bam hi and ecori , to obtained an expression plasmid , designated pen - 2 . the expression of the hcv cdna is under the control of a promoter lac . the structure of the expression plasmid pen - 2 and restriction map are given in fig2 . the expression plasmid pen - 2 is incubated with e . coli jm109 ( de3 ) at 37 ° c . overnight . the e . coli colonies producing hcv core antigen protein are selected by screening their expression products by western blotting . the transformed e . coli colonies are incubated in a conditioned culture medium . the colonies are centrifuged and lysed by freezing - defrosting cycles and enzyme - digestion . the protein product is released by the lysed cells and purified by chromatography . the purity of the obtained polypeptide is more than 90 %. the polypeptide has a molecular weight of about 25 , 000 as measured by electrophoresis through a sodium dodecyl sulfate - polyacrylamide gel . v . immunological reactivity of hcv core antigen with hcv antibodies by western blotting the purified polypeptide is subject to an sds electrophoresis by standard procedures . the sds - page gel is washed with deionized water at 4 ° c . for 15 minutes and washed with blotting buffer ( 0 . 15m sodium phosphate buffer , ph 6 . 7 ) at 4 ° c . for 20 minutes . the peptide map on the gel is then electroblotted onto a nitrocellulose paper under the blotting buffer at 1 . 3a for 1 - 1 . 5 hours . the paper is washed with wash buffer ( pbs - tween 20 , ph 7 . 4 ) and blocked with blocking buffer ( 0 . 1m nacl , 5 mm edta , 50 mm tris , ph 7 . 2 - 7 . 4 , 0 . 2 % fetal bovine serum albumin , 0 . 05 % nonidet p - 40 , 1m urea ) overnight . the paper is reacted with the sera of the persons infected with / without hepatitis c , which are first diluted with 40 % nbbs / tris - hcl ( ph 7 . 4 ), 10x , at 40 ° c . for 2 hours . after the reaction , the paper is washed with wash buffer three times . the paper is reacted with the anti - higg : hrpo conjugate ( which is prepared as described hereafter ) at 40 ° c . for 2 hours . after the reaction , the paper is washed with wash buffer three times and then reacted with 10 ml substrate solution ( 0 . 01 % 4 - ethloro - 1 - napthol , 18 % methanol , 0 . 04m tris , ph 7 . 2 - 7 . 4 , 0 . 1m nacl and 0 . 01 % h 2 o 2 ) for 20 minutes . the polypeptide of the present invention is reactive with the sera of hcv patients but not reactive with the sera of healthy persons . the microtiter plate is coated with the purified polypeptide of the invention at appropriate concentrations and blocked with a buffer containing bovine serum albumin . the treated microliter plate is stored at 2 °- 8 ° c . the purified polypeptide was the sole core - antigen protein coated onto the plate . the purified anti - human immunoglobulin g ( anti - higg ) is conjugated with horse radish peroxidase ( hrpo ) using naio 4 to obtain the anti - igg : hrpo conjugate . the conjugate is purified by chromatography . ( b ) anti - higg : hrpo conjugate solution : the anti - higg : hrpo conjugate prepared as described above dissolved in tris buffer containing a proteineous stabilizer and antiseptics . ( c ) sample diluent : tris buffer containing a proteineous stabilizer and antiseptics . ( d ) opd substrate solution : o - phenylene diamine ( opd ) dissolved in citrate - phosphate buffer containing h 2 o 2 . ( if the solution becomes orange , it means that the solution has been contaminated and cannot be used any more .) ( f ) positive / negative controls : the serum samples of persons infected with / without hepatitis c diluted with phosphate buffer containing a proteineous stabilizer and antiseptics at an appropriate concentration . ( a ) one hundred and fifty microliter ( ul ) of test samples diluted with sample diluent ( 1 : 10 ) and positive / negative controls are added into the wells of the treated microtiter plate . some wells have to be retained as substrate blanks . ( b ) the plate is gently mixed by shaking and incubated at 37 °- 40 ° c . for 1 hour . ( c ) the plate is washed with 0 . 3 ml of wash solution per well by a washer three times . ( d ) one hundred ul of anti - higg : hrpo conjugate solution is added to each well . ( e ) the plate is gently mixed by shaking and incubated at 37 °- 40 ° c . for 30 minutes . ( g ) one hundred ul of opd substrate solution is added into each well and the plate is incubated at 15 °- 30 ° c . in the dark for 30 minutes . ( h ) one hundred ul of stopping solution is added into each well and gently mixed to stop the reaction . ( i ) the od value per well is measured by a spectrophotometer at 492 nm . the od 492nm value per well subtracts the mean of the readings of the blanks ( backgrounds ). the difference ( pcx - ncx ) between the mean of the readings of the positive controls ( pcx ) and that of the negative controls ( ncx ) is equal to or more than 0 . 5 . when the readings of test samples are less than the co value , the samples are considered negative ( i . e ., hcv antibodies cannot be detected in the samples ). when the readings of test samples are equal to or more than the co value , the samples are expected to be positive ; however , it is necessary to repeat the assay for the samples in duplicate . if the readings of either of the duplicate samples is less than the co value , the samples are negative . if the duplicate samples are both more than or equal to the cut - off value , the samples will be positive . when the readings of test samples are more than ncx but less than the co value by 20 %, the samples should be regarded as questionable samples and the assay has to be repeated for those samples . twenty - seven samples were tested by the elisa according to the invention . at the same time , the samples were also tested by the hcv antibody assay by using c100 - 3 as a probe ( i . e ., abbott &# 39 ; s kit ( ii )). the comparison between the test results of abbott &# 39 ; s kit and those of the assay of the invention is given in table i . it is noted that the results of sample g 229 was negative by the abbott &# 39 ; s kit ( ii ) but positive by the assay of the present invention . it is suggested that samples infected with hcv cannot be all detected by the abbott &# 39 ; s assay . table i______________________________________ referencessample no . od . sub . 492 nm results abbott &# 39 ; s kit ( ii ) ______________________________________tsgh 56 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positivetsgh 57 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 23 1 . 469 positive positiveg 30 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 32 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 49 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 56 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 58 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 114 1 . 559 positive positiveg 128 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 186 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 208 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 214 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 231 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 250 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positivey 1 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveusb 9 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveusb 19 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveusb 20 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveusb 23 0 . 952 positive positiveusb 27 0 . 753 positive positiveg 11 0 . 147 negative negativeg 12 0 . 077 negative negativeg 13 0 . 061 negative negativeg 14 0 . 116 negative negativeg 15 0 . 139 negative negativeg 229 0 . 517 positive negative______________________________________ vii . detection of hcv antibodies by hcv core antigen protein combined with hcv nonstructural protein the method is analogous to the elisa as described above while hcv core antigen protein of the invention combined with an hcv nonstructural protein ( 9 : 1 ) is replaced for the hcv core antigen protein to be coated onto the plate . twenty - four samples were tested by the above - mentioned method . at the same time , the samples were also tested by abbott &# 39 ; s kit ( ii ). the results are given in table ii . it is suggested that the results of the abbott &# 39 ; s assay is the same of the above - mentioned method . table ii______________________________________ referencessample no . od . sub . 492 nm results abbott &# 39 ; s kit ( ii ) ______________________________________tsgh 56 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positivetsgh 57 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 23 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 26 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 30 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 32 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 49 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 56 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 58 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 114 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 128 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 186 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 214 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 231 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 250 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positivey 1 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveusb 9 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveusb 19 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveusb 20 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveusb 23 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveusb 27 & gt ; 2 . 0 positive positiveg 92 0 . 038 negative negativeg 93 0 . 056 negative negativeg 94 0 . 071 negative negative______________________________________ while only one embodiment of the present invention has been shown and described herein , it will be appreciated that modifications thereof , some of which have been alluded to hereinabove , may still be readily made thereto by those skilled in the art . we , therefore , intend , by the appended claims , to cover the modifications alluded to herein as well as all other modifications which fall within the true spirit and scope of our invention . __________________________________________________________________________sequence listing ( 1 ) general information :( iii ) number of sequences : 4 ( 2 ) information for seq id no : 1 :( i ) sequence characteristics :( a ) length : 27 base pairs ( b ) type : nucleic acid ( c ) strandedness : single ( d ) topology : linear ( ii ) molecule type : cdna ( iii ) hypothetical : no ( iv ) anti - sense : no ( v ) fragment type : n - terminal ( xi ) sequence description : seq id no : 1 : ggatccatgagcacaaatcctaaacct27 ( 2 ) information for seq id no : 2 :( i ) sequence characteristics :( a ) length : 27 base pairs ( b ) type : nucleic acid ( c ) strandedness : single ( d ) topology : linear ( ii ) molecule type : cdna ( iii ) hypothetical : no ( iv ) anti - sense : no ( v ) fragment type : n - terminal ( xi ) sequence description : seq id no : 2 : gaattcggtgtgcatgatcatgtccgc27 ( 2 ) information for seq id no : 3 :( i ) sequence characteristics :( a ) length : 669 base pairs ( b ) type : nucleic acid ( c ) strandedness : single ( d ) topology : linear ( ii ) molecule type : cdna ( iii ) hypothetical : no ( iv ) anti - sense : no ( v ) fragment type : n - terminal ( xi ) sequence description : seq id no : 3 : atgagcacaaatcctaaacctcaaagaaaaaccaaacgtaacaccaaccgccgcccacag60gacgtcaagttcccgggcggtggtcagatcgttggtggagtttacctgttgccgcgcagg120ggccccaggttgggtgtgcgcgcgactaggaagacttccgagcggtcgcaacctcgtgga180aggcgacaacctatccccaaggctcgccggcccgagggcaggacctgggctcagccgggg240tacccttggcccctctatggcaatgagggtctggggtgggcaggatggctcctgtcaccc300cgaggctctcggcctagttggggccccacggacccccggcgtaggtcgcgtaatctgggt360aaggtcatcgataccctcacaggtggcttcgccgacctcatggggtacattccgctcgtc420agcgccccactaggaggcgctgccagggccctgggccatggcgtccgggttctggaggac480ggcgtgaactatgcaacagggaatctgcccggttgctctttctctatcttcctcttagct540ttgctgtcttgtttgaccatcccagcttccgcttacgaggtgcgcaacgtgtccgggata600taccatgttacgaacgattgctccaactcaagtatcgtgtatgaggcagcggacatgatc660atgcacacc669 ( 2 ) information for seq id no : 4 :( i ) sequence characteristics :( a ) length : 223 amino acids ( b ) type : amino acid ( d ) topology : linear ( ii ) molecule type : peptide ( iii ) hypothetical : no ( iv ) anti - sense : no ( xi ) sequence description : seq id no : 4 : metserthrasnprolysproglnarglysthrlysargasnthrasn151015argargproglnaspvallyspheproglyglyglyglnilevalgly202530glyvaltyrleuleuproargargglyproargleuglyvalargala354045thrarglysthrsergluargserglnproargglyargargglnpro505560ileprolysalaargargprogluglyargthrtrpalaglnprogly65707580tyrprotrpproleutyrglyasngluglyleuglytrpalaglytrp859095leuleuserproargglyserargprosertrpglyprothrasppro100105110argargargserargasnleuglylysvalileaspthrleuthrgly115120125glyphealaaspleumetglytyrileproleuvalseralaproleu130135140glyglyalaalaargalaleuglyhisglyvalargvalleugluasp145150155160glyvalasntyralathrglyasnleuproglycysserpheserile165170175pheleuleualaleuleusercysleuthrileproalaseralatyr180185190gluvalargasnvalserglyiletyrhisvalthrasnaspcysser195200205asnserserilevaltyrglualaalaaspmetilemethisthr210215220__________________________________________________________________________
the invention relates to a polypeptide expressed by a dna molecule , its use in diagnosis and its methods of production . the polypeptide disclosed herein is encoded by a dna molecule derived from the genome of an hcv , and comprises a hepatitis c virus core antigen protein fused to a part of an envelope region of a hepatitis c virus protein the polypeptide may be used in the detection of hcv .