UNLABELLED Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection reorganizes cellular membranes to create an active viral replication site named the membranous web (MW). The role that human choline kinase-α (hCKα) plays in HCV replication remains elusive. Here, we first showed that hCKα activity, not the CDP-choline pathway, promoted viral RNA replication. Confocal microscopy and subcellular fractionation of HCV-i...

Hepatitis C virus encodes a large polyprotein precursor that is proteolytically processed into at least 10 distinct products, in the order NH2-C-E1-E2-p7-NS2-NS3-NS4A-NS4B-NS5A-NS5B -COOH. A serine proteinase encoded in the N-terminal 181 residues of the NS3 nonstructural protein is responsible for cleavage at four sites (3/4A, 4A/4B, 4B/5A, and 5A/5B) in the nonstructural region. NS4A, a 54-re...

NS5A of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a highly phosphorylated protein involved in resistance against interferon and required most likely for replication of the viral genome. Phosphorylation of this protein is mediated by a cellular kinase(s) generating multiple proteins with different electrophoretic mobilities. In the case of the genotype 1b isolate HCV-J, in addition to the basal phosphoryla...

Numerous studies have suggested that an effective Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) vaccine must induce strong cytotoxic and IFN-γ+ T cell responses targeting the non-structural region of the virus. Most importantly, these responses must be able to migrate into and remain functional within the liver, an organ known to cause T cell tolerance. Using three novel HCV DNA vaccines encoding non-structural prot...