Lack of a simple, high throughput antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis (ADCP) assay has limited our understanding of its potential role of in hepatitis C (HCV) infection. Here, we optimised a flow-cytometry based ADCP assay using HCV envelope (E2)-protein coated microbeads that were opsonised with anti-E2 monoclonal IgG antibody (αE2 mAb) and the THP-1 monocyte cell line as effector cells. We found 1.5 × 10⁹/ml microbeads opsonised with 5 μg/ml αE2 mAb and 1.6 × 10⁶/ml THP-1 cells were optimal conditions to distinguish between healthy controls and patients with HCV. This optimised assay was then used to investigate ADCP in plasma obtained from 72 patients with chronic HCV infection and 15 healthy controls. We found that 75% of patients with genotype 1 and 87% of patients with genotype 3 HCV infection had significantly higher levels of ADCP compared to healthy controls. In patients, there was a significant correlation between increase in ADCP and higher concentrations of anti-E2 IgG antibodies in the plasma. Taken together, we established a simple, quick and high throughput ADCP assay for HCV infection that can readily be used for screening of large cohorts of patients and investigation of the role of ADCP in the pathogenesis or protection from this disease.

缺乏简单、高通量的抗体依赖性细胞吞噬 (ADCP) 检测限制了我们对其在丙型肝炎 (HCV) 感染中的潜在作用的理解。在这里，我们使用抗 E2 单克隆 IgG 抗体 (αE2 mAb) 调理的 HCV 包膜 (E2) 蛋白包被微珠优化了基于流式细胞术的 ADCP 测定，并以 THP-1 单核细胞系作为效应细胞。我们发现用 5 μg/ml αE2 mAb 和 1.6 × 10 ⁶调理的1.5 × 10 ⁹ /ml 微珠/ml THP-1 细胞是区分健康对照和 HCV 患者的最佳条件。然后使用这种优化的测定法研究从 72 名慢性 HCV 感染患者和 15 名健康对照获得的血浆中的 ADCP。我们发现，与健康对照相比，75% 的基因型 1 患者和 87% 的基因型 3 HCV 感染患者的 ADCP 水平显着升高。在患者中，ADCP 增加与血浆中抗 E2 IgG 抗体浓度升高之间存在显着相关性。总之，我们建立了一种简单、快速和高通量的 HCV 感染 ADCP 检测方法，可以很容易地用于筛查大量患者并研究 ADCP 在发病机制中的作用或对这种疾病的保护作用。