title: Construction of the dual-functional RNA ligand against HCV NS3 protease and helicase.
abstract: Non-structural protein 3 (NS3) of hepatitis C virus (HCV) contains two distinct activities, protease and helicase which are essential for the HCV replication. In the previous study, we succeeded to obtain RNA aptamers, G9-I, G9-II and G9-III specific for the NS3 protease domain (delta NS3) by in vitro selection (1). As the result of mutational analysis in G9-I, we could obtain the minimum length of RNA structure, delta NEO-III maintaining the full inhibitional activity as shown in G9-I. Furthermore, we created a bi-functional novel RNA ligand, NEO-III-14U which was constructed by connecting delta NEO-III with (U)14 at the 3' terminal. NEO-III-14U was able to inhibit the unwinding of duplex DNA catalyzed by the Full-NS3 helicase activity as well as the protease activity in vitro. Consequently, we could obtain the dual-functional RNA ligand which could inhibit both NS3 protease and helicase activities essential for the HCV proliferation.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Bioscience and Human Technology, AIST, Institute of Applied Biochemistry, Univ. of Tsukuba.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fukuda
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sekiya
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kikuchi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Funaji
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kuno
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nishikawa
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D008024:Ligands; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009843:Oligoribonucleotides / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry; D020365:RNA Helicases / Q000378:metabolism*; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases / Q000378:metabolism*; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D043583:Nucleoside-Triphosphatase; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases; D000085242:Viral Proteases
chemical_list: D008024:Ligands; D009843:Oligoribonucleotides; D012313:RNA; D020365:RNA Helicases; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins; C084422:NS3 protein, hepatitis C virus; D043583:Nucleoside-Triphosphatase; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases; D000085242:Viral Proteases