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Figure 1 | Genetic Vaccines and Therapy

Figure 1

From: In-vitro model systems to study Hepatitis C Virus

Figure 1

Proteins encoded by the HCV genome. HCV is formed by an enveloped particle harbouring a plus-strand RNA of ~9.6 kb. The genome carries a long openreading frame (ORF) encoding a polyprotein precursor of 3010 amino acids. Translation of the HCV ORF is directed via a 340 nucleotide long 5' nontranslated region (NTR) functioning as an internal ribosome entry site; it permits the direct binding of ribosomes in close proximity to the start codon of the ORF. The HCV polyprotein is cleaved co- and post-translationally by cellular and viral proteases into ten different products, with the structural proteins (core (C), E1 and E2) located in the N-terminal third and the nonstructural (NS2-5) replicative proteins in the remainder. Putative functions of the cleavage products are shown [4]

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