Cloning and sequencing of the structural region and expression of putative core gene of hepatitis C virus from a British case of chronic sporadic hepatitis.
We report the cloning and sequencing of the putative structural region of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) genome (2229 nucleotides) from an isolate derived from a British case of chronic sporadic non-A, non-B hepatitis. The overall sequence shows a higher similarity with one type of HCV, HCV1 (92%), than with HCV2 (80%), is very highly conserved at the 5' end (99%) preceding the long open reading frame, is well conserved also in the putative core region (90 to 97%), but shows marked variation in the putative envelope region, particularly in the envelope 2/non-structural 1 region (70%). The putative core gene was cloned in pJ3 omega under the early simian virus 40 promoter and expressed in human hepatoma cells. A predominantly cytoplasmic 22K polypeptide was expressed which was antigenically reactive with serum from chronically infected HCV patients.
Kumar
U
U
Department of Medicine, St Mary's Hospital Medical School, London, U.K.
Cheng
D
D
Thomas
H
H
Monjardino
J
J
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004279:DNA, Viral; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D005814:Genes, Viral; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D014758:Viral Core Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
D004279:DNA, Viral; D014758:Viral Core Proteins; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins