Hepatitis G Virus Encodes Protease Activities Which Can Effect Processing of the Virus Putative Nonstructural Proteins |
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| Authors: | Alexander S Belyaev Susan Chong Alexander Novikov Ana Kongpachith Frank R Masiarz Moon Lim and Jungsuh P Kim |
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| Institution: | Genelabs Technologies, Inc., Redwood City, California 940631.; Protein Structure Analysis Group, Chiron Corporation, Emeryville, California 94608-29162.; and Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 941433. |
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| Abstract: | The genome of a recently identified virus, hepatitis G virus (HGV), shows considerable homology to hepatitis C virus (HCV). Two HGV proteases similar to nonstructural proteins NS2 and NS3 of HCV were identified, and their cleavage site specificity was investigated. Amino acids essential for the protease activities were determined by mutation analysis. NS4A of HGV was demonstrated to be a cofactor for NS3-mediated proteolysis, with a region critical for activity residing between Leu1561 and Ala1598. |
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