What is claimed is:
1. An isolated and purified protein of the hepatits C virus that is formed by expression of an overlapping open reading frame in the core protein gene sequence through a frameshifting mechanism.
2. The protein of claim 1 wherein the frameshifting mechanism is ribosomal frameshifting.
3. The protein of claim 1 wherein the frameshifting mechanism is transcriptional frameshifting.
4. The protein of claim 1 wherein the amino acid sequence of the protein comprises SEQ ID NO: 1.
5. The protein of claim 1 wherein the protein is derived from the 12 overlapping reading frame.
6. The protein of claim 5 wherein the protein has a length of about 125 amino acids to about 161 amino acids.
7. The protein of claim 1 wherein the protein is derived from the 12 overlapping reading frame.
8. The protein of claim 7 wherein the protein has a length of about 13 amino acids to over 50 amino acids.
9. The protein of claim 1 wherein the protein has an amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:2 to SEQ ID NO:22.
10. A vaccine for immunizing a mammal against hepatitis C comprising at least one protein of claim 1 in a pharmacologically acceptable carrier.
11. A method of preventing hepatitis C, the method comprising administering the vaccine of claim 10 to a mammal in an amount effective to stimulate the production of a protective antibody.
12. A DNA vaccine for immunizing a mammal against hepatitis C comprising a DNA sequence that encodes for at least one protein of claim 1 in a pharmacologically acceptable carrier.
13. A method of preventing hepatitis C, the method comprising administering the vaccine of claim 12 to a mammal in an amount effective to stimulate the production of a protective antibody.
14. A composition comprising the protein of claim 1 and an excipient, diluent or carrier.
15. A method of preventing hepatitis C, the method comprising administering the composition of claim 14 to a mammal in an amount effective to stimulate the production of a protective antibody.
16. An isolated polypeptide prepared by genetic engineering wherein said polypeptide consists of an amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 1 to SEQ ID NO:22.
17. An anti-viral composition comprising a compound that binds to the protein of claim 1.
18. A method of treating hepatitis C in a human subject, the method comprising administering the anti-viral composition of claim 17 to the human subject.
19. Antibodies directed against a hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein which are elicited by immunizing an animal using a partially purified protein of claim 1.
20. The antibodies of claim 19 wherein the antibodies are monoclonal.
21. The antibodies of claim 19 wherein the antibodies are polyclonal.
22. A method for analyzing HCV antigen in a sample comprising contacting said antibodies of claim 19 with said sample under conditions suitable for said antibodies to form a complex with a hepatitis C virus (HCV) antigen protein, and detecting said complex and thereby determining whether HCV antigen is in said sample.
23. A method for detecting hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibodies in a sample, comprising contacting the protein of claim 1 with said sample under conditions which allow binding of said protein with antibodies directed against an HCV antigen in said sample to form a antigen-antibody complex, and then detecting said antigen-antibody complex.
24. The method of claim 23 wherein the method is carried out by solid phase-immunoassay.
25. The method of claim 23 characterized by using an enzyme or isotope substance as a label.
26. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detecting hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibodies in samples, which comprises:
a) coating the protein of claim 1 onto a solid phase,
b) contacting a sample suspected of containing HCV antibodies with said polypeptide coated onto the solid phase under conditions which allow the formation of an antigen-antibody complex,
c) adding an anti-human antibody conjugated with an enzyme label to be captured by said antigen-antibody complex bound to the solid phase, and
d) detecting the captured label and determining whether the sample has HCV antibodies.
27. The ELISA of claim 26 wherein the solid phase is a microtiter plate.
28. The ELISA of claim 26 wherein the solid phase comprises horseradish peroxidase.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A traffic monitoring system which monitors network traffic in an IP network in which an IP packet is transmitted according to a service class which is classified based on Diffserv protocol, comprising:
a monitor unit which monitors the IP packet on the IP network;
a detection unit which detects a service class which is classified based on Diffserv protocol, a source IP address, and a destination IP address of the IP packet, wherein the detection unit determines, from the detected IP addresses, a source sub network address and a destination sub network address;
a classify unit which classifies traffic information based on the detected information; and
a monitor manager which performs statistical process on the traffic information accumulated by the accumulate unit for displaying the traffic information, monitoring abnormal status in the network, or capturing trend in the network; and
an accumulate unit which accumulates the classified traffic information for each service class andor for each sub network address,
wherein the detection unit uses a net mask to determine the sub network addresses, and the monitor manager supplies the net mask to the detection unit.
2. The traffic monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the service class is expressed by DSCP in a header field of the PP packet.
3. The traffic monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the IP network includes IP routers which are connected each other via links and the traffic monitoring system is included in the IP routers.
4. The traffic monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the accumulate unit accumulates the traffic information in a form of MIB.
5. A traffic monitoring method which monitors network traffic in an IP network in which an IP packet is transmitted according to a service class which is classified based on Diffserv protocol, comprising the steps of:
monitoring the IP packet on the IP network;
detecting a service class which is classified based on Diffserv protocol, a source IP address, and a destination IP address of the IP packet, wherein the detecting step determines, from the detected IP addresses, a source sub network address and a destination sub network address;
classifying traffic information based on the detected information;
accumulating the classified traffic information for each service class andor for each sub network address; and
performing statistical process on the accumulated traffic information,
wherein the detecting step receives net mask and uses the net mask to determine the sub network addresses.
6. The traffic monitoring system of claim 5, wherein the service class is expressed by DSCP in a header field of the IP packet.
7. The traffic monitoring method of claim 5, wherein the IP network includes IP routers which are connected each other via links and the traffic monitoring method is incorporated in the IP router.
8. The traffic monitoring method of claim 5, wherein the accumulating step accumulates the traffic information in a form of MIB.
9. A recording medium readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the computer to perform a traffic monitoring method which monitors network traffic in an IP network in which an IP packet is transmitted according to a service class which is classified based on Diffserv protocol, comprising the steps of:
monitoring the IP packet on the IP network;
detecting a service class which is classified based on Diffserv protocol, a source IP address, and a destination IP address of the IP packet, wherein the detecting step determines, from the detected IP addresses, a source sub network address and a destination sub network address;
classifying traffic information based on the detected information;
accumulating the classified traffic information for each service class andor for each sub network address; and
performing statistical process on the accumulated traffic information,
wherein the detecting step receives net mask and uses the net mask to determine the sub network addresses.