BACKGROUND Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been reported to regulate cellular microRNAs. The HCV core protein is considered to be a potential oncoprotein in HCV-related hepatocellular carcinoma, but HCV core-modulated cellular microRNAs are unknown. The HCV core protein regulates p21(Waf1/Cip1) expression. However, the mechanism of HCV core-associated p21(Waf1/Cip1) regulation remains to be further...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) contains two membrane-associated envelope glycoproteins, E1 and E2, which assemble as a heterodimer in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In this study, predictive algorithms and genetic analyses of deletion mutants and glycosylation site variants of the E1 glycoprotein were used to suggest that the glycoprotein can adopt two topologies in the ER membrane: the conventional ...

Our previous study indicated that the core protein of hepatitis C virus (HCV) can associate with tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR)-related lymphotoxin-b receptor (LT-bR) and that this protein-protein interaction plays a modulatory effect on the cytolytic activity of recombinant form LT-bR ligand (LT-a1b2) but not tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a) in certain cell types. Since both TNF-a/TN...

Our previous study indicated that the core protein of hepatitis C virus (HCV) can associate with tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR)-related lymphotoxin-beta receptor (LT-betaR) and that this protein-protein interaction plays a modulatory effect on the cytolytic activity of recombinant form LT-betaR ligand (LT-alpha1beta2) but not tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) in certain cell types....

20S proteasome is the enzymatic core engine involved in processes of cellular protein regulation, thus becoming a promising target inter alia therapy many diseases. In this work, ...

The vaccinia virus I7L gene product is predicted to be a cysteine proteinase and is demonstrated in this study to be responsible for cleavage of each of the three major core protein precursors (P4a, P4b, and P25K) in vivo. Mutagenesis of the putative catalytic triad of I7L or of the cleavage sites in the core protein precursors inhibits processing. A truncated protein lost the ability to cleave...

Extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) play an important role in the transport and transformation of pollutants. At present, some scholars have conducted basic experimental characterization EPS, but molecular lev-el interactions among various components EPS still need to be fully characterized. Here, we use dynamics (MD) simulation explore structural properties systems atomic detail. The proce...

The core protein of pestiviruses is released from the polyprotein by viral and cellular proteinases. Here we report on an additional intramembrane proteolytic step that generates the C terminus of the core protein. C-terminal processing of the core protein of classical swine fever virus (CSFV) was blocked by the inhibitor (Z-LL)(2)-ketone, which is specific for signal peptide peptidase (SPP). T...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major cause of chronic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). HCV is an enveloped positivestranded RNA virus, belonging to the Flaviviridae family. The HCV genome produces a polyprotein precursor which is processed by proteases and yields at least 10 proteins. HCV possesses a second open reading frame (ORF) within the core gene, encoding an intr...

Recent studies on the primate protection from HCV infection stressed the importance of immune response against structural viral proteins. Strong immune response against nucleocapsid (core) protein was difficult to achieve, requesting further experimentation in large animals. Here, we analyzed the immunogenicity of core aa 1-173, 1-152, and 147-191 and of its main alternative reading frame produ...