Antibody to E1 peptide of hepatitis C virus genotype 4 inhibits virus binding and entry to HepG2 cells in vitro

Figure 3 Neutralization of HCV infection into HepG2 cells by anti E1 antibody. The pretreated sera with anti E1 Ab or with PBS were incubated with HepG2 cells for 90 min at 37 ^oC in CO₂ incubator. Cell pellets were washed with PBS, incubated with FITC labeled F(ab)₂ portion of anti E1 Ab and analyzed with flow cytometry as described in Materials and Methods The mean fluorescence intensities decreased from 12.5% in cells incubated with PBS to 2% after treatment with anti E1 Ab using cell Quest software (Becton Dickinson).