Endogenous hepatitis C virus homolog fragments in European rabbit and hare genomes replicate in cell culture.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 23185448.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0049820 and PMC identifier 3501476.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Endogenous retroviruses, non-retroviral RNA viruses and DNA viruses have been found in the mammalian genomes. The origin of Hepatitis C virus (HCV), the major cause of chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma in humans, remains unclear since its discovery. Here we show that fragments homologous to HCV structural and non-structural (NS) proteins present in the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and hare (Lepus europaeus) genomes replicate in bovine cell cultures. The HCV genomic homolog fragments were demonstrated by RT-PCR, PCR, mass spectrometry, and replication in bovine cell cultures by immunofluorescence assay (IFA) and immunogold electron microscopy (IEM) using specific MAbs for HCV NS3, NS4A, and NS5 proteins. These findings may lead to novel research approaches on the HCV origin, genesis, evolution and diversity.
Medical subject headings
- Hares
- Hepacivirus
- Viral Nonstructural Proteins