Activities of Thrombin and Factor Xa Are Essential for Replication of Hepatitis E Virus and Are Possibly Implicated in ORF1 Polyprotein Processing.

ABSTRACT: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a clinically important positive-sense RNA virus. The ORF1 of HEV encodes a nonstructural polyprotein of 1,693 amino acids. It is not clear whether the ORF1 polyprotein (pORF1) is processed into distinct enzymatic domains. Many researchers have attempted to understand the mechanisms of pORF1 processing. However, these studies gave various results and could never convincingly establish the mechanism of pORF1 processing. In this study, we demonstrated the possible role of thrombin and factor Xa in pORF1 processing. We observed that the HEV pORF1 polyprotein bears conserved cleavage sites of thrombin and factor Xa. Using a reverse genetics approach, we demonstrated that an HEV replicon having mutations in the cleavage sites of either thrombin or factor Xa could not r

SUBMITTER: Kanade GD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5827406 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature