Fig. 2: Immunogenicity of E2E1-NPs in rabbits.
a Rabbit immunization schedule. Six rabbits were immunized with E2 monomers, E2E1-I53-50A trimers, or E2E1-NP (10 µg E2, or equimolar amount of E2) at weeks 0 and 4. Bleeds were taken at weeks 4 and 6. All immunogens are based on the genotype 1a AMS0232 strain. b–d Rabbit serum binding titers to E2E1-foldon trimers (b), E2 monomers (c), and HVR1 (first 27 amino acids of AMS0232 E2) (d). e Neutralization titers measured against the sequence-matched AMS0232 HCVpp. f Correlations between autologous neutralization (e) and binding titers (b–d). Spearman r and p-values (two-tailed) are indicated. g Global geometric mean titers (GGMT) were calculated based on the neutralization ID50 titers against six HCVpp strains. Each dot represents a single rabbit serum. Neutralization ID50 titers of the individual viruses are depicted in Table S1. h Breadth of the neutralizing response defined as the number of HCVpp strains neutralized with an ID50 titer above 40. Horizontal lines in (b)–(e), (g), (h) indicate the median values. Significant differences between groups in (b)–(e), (g), (h) were determined using a Kruskal–Wallis test followed by Dunn’s post-test (b–e, g, h); n = 6 rabbit sera per group. P-values for significant differences are indicated on top of the graphs. Source data are provided as a Source data file.
