Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the causative agent for non-A, non-B hepatitis and is a significant problem i n global public health. It is currently estimated that 3% of the world’s population has persistent HCV infections and it is even more unfortunate that no vaccine exists and the current anti-viral therapeutics are not effective in the majority of cases. Understanding the molecular biology of this pathogen is key to developing potent treatments for HCV-infected patients.
Our investigators have been studying the non-structural (NS) proteins of HCV, and have now elucidated the three-dimensional structure of the C-terminal domain of NS2 protease at high resolution. The C-terminal domain of NS2 is adjacent to the NS3 protein in the HCV polypeptide precursor, where together NS2 and NS3 form a NS2/3 autoprotease that mediates the cleavage of the NS2/3 junction resulting in the two independent proteins.
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