BMB Reports
- Volume 33 Issue 1
- /
- Pages.59-62
- /
- 2000
- /
- 1976-670X(eISSN)
Identification of a Cellular Protein Interacting with RNA Polymerase of Hepatitis C Virus
- Park, Kyu-Jin (Institute of Environment and Life Science, The Hallym Academy of Sciences) ;
- Choi, Soo-Ho (Institute of Environment and Life Science, The Hallym Academy of Sciences) ;
- Koh, Moon-Soo (Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Hallym University) ;
- Kim, Sung-Wan (Department of Biochemistry, Kangwon National University) ;
- Hwang, Soon-Bong (Institute of Environment and Life Science, The Hallym Academy of Sciences)
- Received : 1999.09.04
- Accepted : 1999.10.14
- Published : 2000.01.31
Abstract
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) nonstructural 5B (NS5B) protein is an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). To determine whether it can contribute to viral replication by interaction with cellular proteins, the yeast two-hybrid screening system was employed to screen a human liver cDNA library. Using the HCV NS5B as a bait, we have isolated positive clones encoding a cellular protein. The NS5B interacting protein, 5BIP, is a novel cellular protein of 170 amino acids. Interaction of the HCV NS5B protein with 5BIP was confirmed by a protein-protein blotting assay. Recently, we have demonstrated that NS5B possesses an RdRp activity and thus it is possible that 5BIP, in association with NS5B, plays a role in HCV replication.
Keywords