{Reference Type}: Journal Article
{Title}: Cloning and sequencing of the structural region and expression of putative core gene of hepatitis C virus from a British case of chronic sporadic hepatitis.
{Author}: Kumar U;Cheng D;Thomas H;Monjardino J;
{Journal}: J Gen Virol
{Volume}: 73
{Issue}: 0
{Year}: Jun 1992
{Factor}: 5.141
{DOI}: 10.1099/0022-1317-73-6-1521
{Abstract}: We report the cloning and sequencing of the putative structural region of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) genome (2229 nucleotides) from an isolate derived from a British case of chronic sporadic non-A, non-B hepatitis. The overall sequence shows a higher similarity with one type of HCV, HCV1 (92%), than with HCV2 (80%), is very highly conserved at the 5' end (99%) preceding the long open reading frame, is well conserved also in the putative core region (90 to 97%), but shows marked variation in the putative envelope region, particularly in the envelope 2/non-structural 1 region (70%). The putative core gene was cloned in pJ3 omega under the early simian virus 40 promoter and expressed in human hepatoma cells. A predominantly cytoplasmic 22K polypeptide was expressed which was antigenically reactive with serum from chronically infected HCV patients.