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Virologie

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The F protein of the hepatitis C virus: a new exemple of frameshift Volume 8, issue 3, mai-juin 2004

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Authors
Unité CNRS‐UPR 2511, IBL\ Institut Pasteur de Lille, 59021 Lille Cedex Laboratoire de virologie, centre hospitalier universitaire, Hôpital Sud, 80054 Amiens Cedex

Hepatitis C infection is highly prevalent worldwide, affecting 3 % of the human population. Hepatitis C virus (HCV), its causative agent, is a single‐stranded RNA virus of positive polarity with a single long open reading frame. The HCV genome encodes a single polyprotein of 3000 amino acids which is cleaved into 10 proteins by host and viral proteases. Though the majority of the proteins was rapidly identified, a novel protein has recently been discovered. In fact, the presence of a 16 kDa protein was shown in the 90s and assimilated to a truncated form of the capsid protein. Recently, this 16 kDa protein has been characterized as a new HCV protein, named F protein for « frameshift ». This protein derives from a + 1 frameshift in the amino‐terminal region of the sequence encoding the core protein. This paper reviews the data obtained until now on this protein since his discovery in 2001.