PLoS Pathogens
http://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/
(Accessed 2 July 2016)

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Pearls
Lessons from Nature: Understanding Immunity to HCV to Guide Vaccine Design
Zachary T. Freeman, Andrea L. Cox
| published 30 Jun 2016 | PLOS Pathogens
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1005632
[Initial text]
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an important global health concern with approximately 185 million people infected [1]. HCV infection most often leads to chronic infection with few early symptoms, but chronically infected individuals can develop liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Genome-wide association studies in humans have identified innate associated genes and HLA class II as important predictors of spontaneous clearance of HCV [2,3], but the correlates of protective immunity are not fully defined. The existence of few models to study protective immunity has hindered vaccine development research. Despite this limitation, significant advancements have been made in our understanding of protective immune responses to HCV using the chimpanzee model and humans exposed to HCV (Fig 1)…