Further dosing experiments showed that increasing the concentrations of HCV VLPs to 20 mg/ml, did not induce DC activation because the percentage of MHC Class II high DCs in cultures containing escalating doses of VLPs remained similar to those containing untreated DCs ( Figure 2B ). In contrast, exposure to as little as 0.1 nmoles of E 8 Pam 2 Cys was sufficient at inducing a greater than two-fold increase in activation of DC compared to untreated cells ( Figure 2C) and was similar to the levels of activation observed with LPS. No DC activation was observed in the presence of Alhydrogel ( Figure 2D ). The presence of E 8 Pam 2 Cys in HCV VLP-containing formulations however, not only promotes uptake of HCV VLPs by DCs but also considerably increases the level of DC activation.