Clifford algebras were discovered by Clifford in the late 19th century as part of his search for generalizations of quaternions. He considered an algebra generated by V = R subject to the relation v = −||v|| for all v ∈ V . (For n = 2 this gives the quaternions via i = e1, j = e2, and k = e1e2.) They were rediscovered by Dirac. In this handout we explain some general features of Clifford algebr...

The Hepatitis C virus E1 and E2 envelope proteins are the major players in all events required for virus entry into target cells. In addition, the recently developed HCV cell culture system has indicated that E1E2 heterodimer formation is a prerequisite for viral particle production. In this paper, we explored a new genetic approach to construct intergenotypic 2a/1b chimeras, maintaining the st...

Robin Harte Dedicated to Goldie Hawn, on her birthday Abstract We attempt to deconstruct the Arens-Royden Theorem. Suppose A is a Banach algebra (by default complex, with identity 1): we shall write 0.1 A−1 = {a ∈ A : 1 ∈ Aa∩aA} for the open subgroup of invertible elements, and A−1 0 for the connected component of the identity in A −1: it turns out ([8], [11] Theorem 7.11.4) that 0.2 A−1 0 = Ex...

Viroporins are small transmembrane proteins with ion channel activities modulating properties of intracellular membranes that have diverse proviral functions. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) encodes a viroporin, p7, acting during assembly, envelopment and secretion of viral particles (VP). HCV p7 is released from the viral polyprotein through cleavage at E2-p7 and p7-NS2 junctions by signal peptidase, ...

Vector algorithms allow the computation of an output vector r = r1r2 : : : rm given an input vector e = e1e2 : : : em in a bounded number of operations, independent of m the length of the vectors. The allowable operations are usually restricted to bit-wise operations available in processors, including shifts and binary addition with carry. These restrictions imply that the existence of a vector...

Envelope glycoprotein 2 (E2) of hepatitis C virus contains 18 conserved cysteine (Cys) residues in its ectodomain. By cysteine-alanine mutagenesis and function analysis, six Cys in H77 E2 (C494, C508, C552, C564, C607 and C644) were found to be indispensable for recognition by conformation-dependent mAb H53. Removal of any of these Cys residues did not affect E2 heterodimerization with E1, but ...

Carbohydrate binding agents (CBAs), including natural lectins, are more and more considered as broad-spectrum antivirals. These molecules are able to directly inhibit many viruses such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), Dengue Virus, Ebola Virus or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus through binding to envelope protein N-glycans. In the case of HIV, it has...