Hepatitis C virus-host interactions: Etiopathogenesis and therapeutic strategies

Figure 1 Hepatitis C virus genomic organization,replication,translation and generation of functional proteins. Proteins encoded by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) genome. HCV is formed by an enveloped particle harboring a plus-strand RNA of about 9.6 kb. The genome carries a long open-reading frame (ORF) encoding a polyprotein precursor of 3010 amino acids. Translation of the HCV ORF is directed via a 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), envelop 1 (E1) and envelop 2 (E2) located in the N-terminal third, whereas, the nonstructural (NS2, NS3, NS4A, NS4B, NS5A, NS5B) replicative proteins are located in the remainder. Putative functions of the cleavage products are shown.