Cell type-specific enhancement of hepatitis C virus internal ribosome entry site-directed translation due to 5' nontranslated region substitutions selected during passage of virus in lymphoblastoid cells.

ABSTRACT: Low-level replication of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in cultured lymphoblastoid cells inoculated with H77 serum inoculum led to the appearance of new virus variants containing identical substitutions at three sites within the viral 5' nontranslated RNA (5'NTR): G(107)-->A, C(204)-->A, and G(243)-->A (N. Nakajima, M. Hijikata, H. Yoshikura, and Y. K. Shimizu, J. Virol. 70:3325-3329, 1996). These results suggest that virus with this 5'NTR sequence may have a greater capacity for replication in such cells, possibly due to more efficient cap-independent translation, since these nucleotide substitutions reside within the viral internal ribosome entry site (IRES). To test this hypothesis, we examined the translation of dicistronic RNAs containing upstream and downstream reporter sequences (Renilla a

SUBMITTER: Lerat H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC112219 | biostudies-literature | 2000 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature