title: An RNA aptamer containing two binding sites against the HCV minus-IRES domain I.
abstract: The higher order structure of HCV (-)IRES containing five stem-loop structures (domain I) is essential for HCV replication because the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, NS5B, recognizes it as the initiation site for plus-strand synthesis. To inhibit a de novo synthesis of plus-strand RNA molecules, in vitro selection against (-)IRES domain I was performed. One of the obtained aptamers, AP30, contained two consensus sequences within a random sequence region. Two consensus sequences form two apical loops and mutational analysis showed that both sequences were essential for binding to the target and for inhibiting NS5B-mediated RNA synthesis in vitro.
authors.affiliation: Department of Material and Biological Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Yamagata University, Yamagata, Japan.
authors.forename: Keisuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Konno
authors.forename: Mana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iizuka
authors.forename: Syusuke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fujita
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nishikawa
authors.forename: Tsunemi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
authors.forename: Kotaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fukuda
mesh_terms: D052157:Aptamers, Nucleotide / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D001665:Binding Sites; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D012324:RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D052157:Aptamers, Nucleotide; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins; C087036:NS-5 protein, hepatitis C virus; D012324:RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase