Neutralization activity and kinetics of two broad-range human monoclonal IgG1 derived from recombinant Fab fragments and directed against Hepatitis C virus E2 glycoprotein.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects 170 million people worldwide and causes chronic liver inflammation and fibrogenesis leading to cirrhosis, endstage liver failure and hepatocellular carcinoma (Alter, 1997; Seeff et al., 1992; Tong et al., 1995). HCV infection is also associated with several extra-hepatic complications, in particular to cryoglobulinemia (Perotti et al., 2008a; Sautto et al., 2012b). The development of an effective anti-HCV prophylactic or therapeutic strategy has been hindered by the ability of this virus to continuously mutate (Deutsch and Hadziyannis, 2008). The current standard treatment of HCV is based on a combination therapy (ribavirin and interferon) fraught with side-effects and associated with a low sustained virological response (50-55%), especially when used against the most common and “aggressive” HCV genotype (genotype 1) (Mira et al., 2009). Some hope has been recently stimu-