Hepatitis C virus (HCV) requires the liver specific micro-RNA (miRNA), miR-122, to replicate. This was considered unique among RNA viruses until recent discoveries of HCV-related hepaciviruses prompting the question of a more general miR-122 dependence. Among hepaciviruses, the closest known HCV relative is the equine non-primate hepacivirus (NPHV). Here, we used Argonaute cross-linking immunop...

A cellular protein that interacts with the NS5A polypeptide of bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) was identified in a yeast two-hybrid screen. The NS5A interactor was identified as the alpha subunit of bovine translation elongation factor 1A (eEF1A). Cell-free binding studies were performed with chimeric NS5A fused to glutathione S-transferase (GST-NS5A) expressed in bacteria. GST-NS5A bound s...

The 5' untranslated region (5'UTR) of the recently described non-primate hepacivirus (NPHV) contains a region with sequence homology to the internal ribosomal entry site (IRES) of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and GB virus B (GBV-B). Here, we demonstrated internal translation initiation by the NPHV 5'UTR in a bicistronic vector. An RNA stem-loop upstream of the NPHV IRES was structurally distinct fro...

West Nile virus (WNV) is a positive-stranded RNA virus belonging to the Flaviviridae family, a large family with 3 main genera (flavivirus, hepacivirus and pestivirus). Among these viruses, there are several globally relevant human pathogens including the mosquito-borne dengue virus (DENV), yellow fever virus (YFV), Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) and West Nile virus (WNV), as well as tick-bo...

BACKGROUND Studies have shown that the immunosuppression induced by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) accelerates the natural history of liver disease associated with hepatitis C virus (HCV), with 3- to 5-fold higher odds of coinfected individuals developing cirrhosis. However, estimates of the seroprevalence of hepatitis C among people living with HIV/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (...