Q-RT-PCR was performed to detect ISGs 6 hours posttreatment. HepG2 cells transfected with pEco63-1.3 (HBV 1.3x expression plasmid constructed using HBV sequence from pEco63) were treated with cTCR-L/IFNα ± 10 μg/mL HBc18-27 peptide, Roferon, or Peg-IFNα (Pegasys). After 72 hours the viral supernatant was collected and S-antigen was quantified using an HBsAg chemiluminescence Maraviroc immunoassay kit. HBV-specific CD8 T cells were cocultured with HBV peptide-pulsed or not pulsed HepG2 cells

with TCR-L/IFNα, fixed, and stained for IFNγ-PE. HepG2 were incubated with HBV-specific CD8 T cells alone or with TCR-L/IFNα overnight. Supernatants were collected after 18 hours and concentrations of CXCL-9 and CXCL-10 were measured using the Cytometric Bead Array System (BD Biosciences, San Jose, CA). In selected experiments, intracellular cytokine staining using fluorescent-conjugated anti-CXCL-10 antibodies was used. We recently reported the production and characterization click here of a murine IgG1 antibody specific for the surface HBs183-91/A*02:01 complex (sTCR-L).11 A second antibody specific for core HBc18-27/A*02:01 complex, a dominant HLA-A201 HBV-epitope, was produced using the same method. Figure 1 shows the specificity data of both cTCR-L (specific for HBc18-27/A*02:01) and sTCR-L (specific for HBs183-91/A*02:01). Both TCR-Ls selectively recognize

HLA-A*02:01+ targets pulsed with the respective specific peptides (Fig. 1A). In addition,

both TCR-Ls bound to HBV-producing HepG2 cells, but did not bind to HepG2 cells that had not been transfected with HBV (Supporting Fig. 1) or cells pulsed with other A*02:01 Avelestat (AZD9668) binding peptides. The specific recognition of HBc18-27 pulsed cells or HBV-producing cells by cTCR-L antibodies was not influenced by the presence of serum from CHB patients (data not shown), as demonstrated for sTCR-L.11 The two antibodies were tested for their ability to recognize naturally infected cells by immunohistochemistry on frozen liver biopsies from patients with CHB (Fig. 1B) or by staining of isolated hepatocytes purified from CHB patients biopsies (Fig. 1C). Both antibodies specifically recognized, with variable frequencies, the hepatocytes of HLA-A*02:01+ patients with CHB, but they did not bind to hepatocytes purified from HLA-A*02:01-negative subjects (Fig. 1B,C). The possible broadness of applicability of both cTCR-L and sTCR-L in patients of different ethnicities infected by different HBV genotypes was studied by analyzing the TCR-Ls ability to recognize the peptides of the respective HBc18-27 and HBs183-91 epitopes of HBV genotypes A, B, C, D, E, and F presented by different HLA-A*02 allotypes. Amino acid sequences of the corresponding peptides are shown in Fig. 1D with a description of the HLA-A02* subtypes present in distinct human populations listed in Fig. 1D.