丙型肝炎病毒F蛋白在病毒复制和致病中的作用

Role of Hepatitis C Virus F Protein in Virus Replication and Pathogenesis

丙型肝炎病毒(Hepatitis C virus,HCV)属于黄病毒科,是有包膜的单正链RNA病毒。HCV基因组约有9 600个碱基,编码的单一开放读码框(Open reading frame,ORF)翻译出约3 000个氨基酸残基的多聚蛋白前体,在宿主细胞及病毒蛋白酶的作用下,剪切成至少10种结构蛋白和非结构蛋白。近年来,一种新的病毒蛋白在一些实验室相继被发现,称为读码框移位蛋白(Alternative reading frame protein,ARFP),或称为F蛋白(Frameshift protein),也有学者称之为Core+1蛋白。F蛋白是由核心基因读码框移位产生的,虽然从发现至今已有10余年,但其生物学功能仍不明确,对其在肝脏疾病和肝细胞癌的发生发展中的作用及其对HCV复制和感染的影响尚有争议。本文就F蛋白的发现、产生机制、抗原性、生化特性及生物学功能等作一综述。

Hepatitis C virus（HCV） is an enveloped positive-strand RNA virus of the Flaviviridae family,of which the genome consists of about 9 600 nucleotides encoding a polyprotein（about 3 000 amino acids） that is processed by cellular and viral proteases into at least ten structural and nonstructural viral proteins.In recent years,a novel HCV protein has been identified by several laboratories,known as the reading frame shift protein（alternative reading frame protein,ARFP） or F protein（frameshift protein）,also called as Core＋1 protein.F protein gene is generated from the core reading frame shift.Although F protein has been discovered for more than 10 years,its function remains unclear,and its role in genesis and progress of liver diseases and hepatocellular carcinoma（HCC） as well as its effect on replication and infection of HCV are still in dispute.This review aims to summary the discovery,mechanism,antigenicity,biochemical characteristics and biological function of F protein.