Patent ID: 6964852

Claim:
A method of detecting and/or quantifying, in a sample, all or part of the RNA of the hepatitis C virus, comprising: bringing said sample into contact with a peptide recognized by antibodies directed against a polypeptide comprising the sequence of amino acids 2-45 of the N-terminal end of the Core or nucleocapsid protein (p21) of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) (SEQ ID NO: 1), wherein said peptide comprises a peptide sequence equivalent but not identical to SEQ ID NO: 2, or said peptide consists of the peptide sequence SEQ ID NO: 2, said peptide sequence comprising a tertiary structure consisting of at least a first peptide fragment having a secondary structure in the form of an α helix, a second peptide fragment having a secondary structure in the form of an α helix and a third joining peptide fragment linking the two α helices, these two α helices being substantially perpendicular to each other in space, excluding (i) all protein or peptide compounds comprising or consisting of the N-terminal end of the p21 protein, this end being considered as starting at the amino acid at position 1 or the amino acid at position 2, and (ii) the sequence SEQ ID NO: 11, and detecting the formation of a complex between said RNA and said peptide.