Analysis of conserved ambisense sequences within GB virus C.

Kondo, Y; Mizokami, M; Nakano, T; Kato, T; Tanaka, Y; Hirashima, N; Ueda, R; Kunimatsu, M et al. · J Infect Dis · 1998

case_control · Level III

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Abstract

No analysis has been done of the ambisense of GB virus C (GBV-C). When the anti-genomes of 16 reported sequences of GBV-C were analyzed, nucleotide codons 1758 and 1402 within the anti-genome were conserved initiation and stop codons, respectively. Nucleotide sequences were also determined within the same region of 22 GBV-C strains. The anti-genomes of 38 sequences were translated and a consensus sequence was determined. In accordance with the consensus sequence, overlapping peptides were synthesized and used for the detection of anti-synthetic peptide antibodies by ELISA. The positivity of antibodies among sera with GBV-C RNA was significantly higher than among sera without GBV-C RNA (66.7% vs. 15.6%), regardless of the simultaneous presence of hepatitis B surface antigen or antibodies to hepatitis C virus (P < .05). These results indicated that a novel protein associated with GBV-C might be expressed from the ambisense of this virus.

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