Synthesis of a novel hepatitis C virus protein by ribosomal frameshift.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an important human pathogen that affects approximately 100 million people worldwide. Its RNA genome codes for a polyprotein, which is cleaved by viral and cellular proteases to produce at least 10 mature viral protein products. We report here the discovery of a novel HCV protein synthesized by ribosomal frameshift. This protein, which we named the F protein, is synthesized from the initiation codon of the polyprotein sequence followed by ribosomal frameshift into the -2/+1 reading frame. This ribosomal frameshift requires only codons 8-14 of the core protein-coding sequence, and the shift junction is located at or near codon 11. An F protein analog synthesized in vitro reacted with the sera of HCV patients but not with the sera of hepatitis B patients, indicating the expression of the F protein during natural HCV infection. This unexpected finding may open new avenues for the development of anti-HCV drugs.[1]References
- Synthesis of a novel hepatitis C virus protein by ribosomal frameshift. Xu, Z., Choi, J., Yen, T.S., Lu, W., Strohecker, A., Govindarajan, S., Chien, D., Selby, M.J., Ou, J. EMBO J. (2001) [Pubmed]
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