NS3 Peptide, a novel potent hepatitis C virus NS3 helicase inhibitor: its mechanism of action and antiviral activity in the replicon system.

ABSTRACT: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) chronic infections represent one of the major and still unresolved health problems because of low efficiency and high cost of current therapy. Therefore, our studies centered on a viral protein, the NS3 helicase, whose activity is indispensable for replication of the viral RNA, and on its peptide inhibitor that corresponds to a highly conserved arginine-rich sequence of domain 2 of the helicase. The NS3 peptide (p14) was expressed in bacteria. Its 50% inhibitory activity in a fluorometric helicase assay corresponded to 725 nM, while the ATPase activity of NS3 was not affected. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies of peptide-protein interactions using the relaxation filtering technique revealed that p14 binds directly to the full-length helicase and its separatel

SUBMITTER: Gozdek A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2224769 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature