background recent studies suggest that rare codon clusters are functionally important for protein activity. methods here, for the first time we analyzed and reported rare codon clusters in hepatitis c virus (hcv) genome and then identified the location of these rare codon clusters in the structure of hcv protein. this analysis was performed using the sherlocc program that detects statistically ...

Background: Hepatitis C is a global health problem. The exact mechanisms by which hepatitis C virus (HCV) can evade the host immune system have become controversial. Whether HCV polyproteins modulate IFN signalling pathways or HCV proteins are responsible for such a property is the subject of interest. Therefore, an efficient baculovirus delivery system was developed to introduce the whole geno...

Background and Aims: The hepatitis C virus (HCV) F protein is a recently described, frameshift product of HCV core encoding sequence. Its function and antigenic properties are unknown. In order to assess the presence of antibodies specific for F protein we characterized specific anti-F antibodies in patients with chronic HCV infection. Methods: The F protein was cloned from the HCV genome....

The nucleotide sequence of the Japanese type of hepatitis C virus (HCV-J) genome, consisting of 9413 nucleotides, was determined by analyses of cDNA clones from plasma specimens from Japanese patients with chronic hepatitis. HCV-J genome contains a long open reading frame that can encode a sequence of 3010 amino acid residues. Comparison of HCV-J with the American isolate of HCV showed 22.6% di...

Background and Aims: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) can cause hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in a significant proportion (≈ 20 %) of individuals with chronic HCV infection (CHC). Currently, CHC is treated with peginterferon and ribavirin, which depending on genotype approximately 50 to 70% of patients are cured. The so-called “extrahepatic HCV infection” or viral replication in regio...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major cause of liver-related morbidity and mortality. In order to develop effective remedies for hepatitis C, it is important to understand the HCV infection profile and host-HCV interaction. HCV-induced innate immune responses play a crucial role in spontaneous HCV clearance; however, HCV-induced innate immune responses have not been fully evaluated in he...

background: beta-thalassemia patients have a high prevalence for hepatitis c virus (hcv) infection. in developing countries, hcv antibody is reported to be high in this group of patients. this study aims to determine the distribution of hcv amongst beta-thalassemia patients in northern iran. materials and methods: this study was undertaken from october 2010 to june 2011 on 245 beta-thalassemia ...