Sequence analysis of putative structural regions of hepatitis C virus isolated from 5 Japanese patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.
The nucleotide sequences of the 5'-portion of the HCV genome, consisting of 2672 nucleotides, were determined by analysis of clones derived from 5 different patients with liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Comparison of 5 genomes and 8 isolates already reported demonstrated the significant genome diversity in the structural regions. Genetic divergence was outstanding in the envelope regions (E1 and NS1/E2, > 59.7% identity) in contrast to the sequence conservation of the 5' non-coding (> 93.8% identity) or core regions (> 82.0% identity). Although hypervariable regions were found in the NS1/E2 region as reported, hydropathicity was maintained for all clones, reflecting the biological functions of these regions.
First Department of Internal Medicine, Kanazawa University, Japan.
M
M
Honda
S
S
Kaneko
M
M
Unoura
K
K
Kobayashi
S
S
Murakami
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000382:microbiology*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004279:DNA, Viral; D016679:Genome, Viral; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000382:microbiology; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000382:microbiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data
D004279:DNA, Viral