Interaction between hepatitis C virus core protein and translin protein--a possible molecular mechanism for hepatocellular carcinoma and lymphoma caused by hepatitis C virus.
To investigate the interaction between hepatitis C virus core protein and translin protein and its role in the pathogenensis of hepatocellular carcinoma and lymphoma. With the components of the yeast two hybrid system 3, "bait" plasmids of HCV core the gene was constructed. After proving that hepatitis C virus core protein could be firmly expressed in AH109 yeast strains, yeast two- hybrid screening was performed by mating AH109 with Y187 that transformed with liver cDNA library plasmids-pACT2 and then plated on quadruple dropout (QDO) medium and then assayed for alpha-gal activity. Sequencing analysis of the genes of library plasmids in yeast colonies that could grow on QDO with alpha-gal activity was performed. The interaction between HCV core protein and the protein we obtained from positive colony was further confirmed by repeating yeast two - hybrid analysis and coimmunoprecipitation in vitro. A gene from a positive colony was the gene of translin, a recombination hotspot binding protein. The interaction between HCV core protein and translin protein could be proved not only in yeast, but also in vitro. The core protein of HCV can interact with translin protein. This can partly explain the molecular mechanism for hepatocellular carcinoma and lymphoma caused by HCV.