Research Proposal to See if Possible HCV Epitopes Can be Used to Make a Recombinant Vaccine

The purpose of this research proposal is to suggest the possibility that the three conserved regions of the Receptor binding domain of HCV (the HVR1, HVR2 and IgVR) are the epitopes of HCV where the virus binds to SR-B1 and CD81. That though fragmentation of the RBD at both the HVR2 and amino acids in IgVR to seprate amino acids 613-618 from the RBD in E2 glycoprotien to use in a functional protein microarray against CD81 assays will show neutralization of HCV in vitro. Then a further test of thee fragments in trimera mice will further prove nuetrlization of HCV by reducing of eliminating HCV infection in the mice. Thus making it possible for development of a recombinant vaccine for HCV.