Hepatitis C virus(HCV) is the major causative agent of post transfusion non-A, non-B hepatitis which is often liver disease and developed into the malignant disease such as liver cirrhosis and hepato cellular carcinoma. To find out antigenic
proteolytic
enzyme of HCV, an experiment to express proteinase of HCV was carried out by PCR using isolated DNA from sera of HCV carriers. And the nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequence of noncoding and core region of HCV were also analyzed by DNA star
software, The nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequence of noncoding and core region of HCV genome isolated in Korea showed a sequence homology at the nucleotide level of about 67.5% with the Japanese HCV prototype, and about 63.5% homology with
the
American HCV prototype. It implicated that the Korean isolates of HCV were closely related to the Japanese HCV. Viral serine-like proteinase DNA was isolted and expressed in E. coli KM-392 strain and two expressed proteins, 15-22KDa and 25-32KDa,
were
reactive to monoclonal antibody against HCV and to sera of hepatitis C patient by immunoblotting analysis. This result indicates that 15-22KDa and 25-32KDa serine-like proteinase of HCV expressed in E. coli could beused as an serodiagnostic
antigen
for
anti-HCV and immunogens for HCV vaccine.
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