26. Hepatitis C Virus Flashcards
how was hepatitis C virus discovered?
- blood from ppl with virus
- extract RNA and make cDNA
- express in E. coli
- detected antigen
- cloned antigen to get hepatitis C
HCV is responsible for 40-60% of _______
HCV is responsible for 40-60% of chronic liver disease and is the leading cause of liver transplant
how many people infected with HCV become chronically infected?
85%
HCV vaccine?
no vaccine available –> very diverse virus with diverse sequence
is HCV cytopathic?
no, it doesn’t kill cells it just forces them to continuously make virus
what family of virus is HCV?
Flaviviridae
how is HCV transmitted (8)? what is the main route?
- blood transfusion (MAIN)
- injecting drug use
- high risk sexual activity
- health-care workers
- hemodialysis
- mother-to-child
- household exposures
- cocaine use
3 ways to diagnose HCV
- Serology
- Viral genome copies
- Degree of liver damage
describe serology to diagnose HCV
Enzyme immunosorbent assay –> look for anti-HCV antibodies in the blood
positive in >95% of chronically infected patients
describe looking at viral genome copies to diagnose HCV
qPCR –> look for viral RNA in the blood, sign of active infection
how can we assess degree of liver damage?
look at serum liver enzymes and fibroscan (liver inflammation/fibrosis)
2 consequences of HCV infection
- acute hepatitis
- chronic hepatitis
what is HCV incubation period for developing acute hepatitis?
6-10 weeks
what happens to 80% of ppl with acute HCV?
80% of ppl with acute HCV will have no symptoms
what are 7 symptoms of acute HCV?
- pain in upper right quadrant
- anorexia
- abdominal pain
- nausea/vomiting
- fever
- fatigue
- jaundice
2 possible results of acute hepatitis
- 15% will clear infection
- 85% will develop chronic HCV
when is hepatitis considered chronic rather than acute?
continuing HCV-related disease without improvement for at least 6 months
what percent of ppl with chronic hepatitis have no symptoms?
60-80%
what is chronic hepatitis?
slowly progressing lifelong infection
2 outcomes of chronic hepatitis and proportions
- cirrhosis and liver failure (10-20%)
- Hepatocellular carcinoma (3-5%)
when do clinical symptoms of HCV appear?
during liver failure
how many years can it take btwn infection and development of serious complications?
20 years may elapse between infection and development of serious complications
evolution of HCV treatment
- IFN
- IFN + PI/NI
- Direct acting antivirals
3 direct acting antivirals
- Inhibitor of NS3 protease
- Inhibitor of NS5B polymerase
- Inhibitor of NS5A
what family is HCV part of?
flavivirus
what genus is HCV part of?
hepacivirus
is HCV enveloped or naked?
enveloped
size of HCV, avg size of capsid
40-80nm, 30nm
what is the shape of HCV capsid?
SPHERICAL
4 characteristics of HCV genome
- +ssRNA
- Monopartite
- Linear
- 9.6kb
describe the HCV genome
5’ UTR has IRES, no cap
3’ UTR has folded structures
1 long ORF
4 HCV structural proteins
- C = core
- E1 = envelope glycoprotein
- E2 = envelope glycoprotein
- p7 = ion channel
6 non-structural proteins
- NS2 = autoprotease
- NS3 = protease/helicase/NTPase
- 4A = protease co-factor
- NS4B = membranous web
- NS5A = RNA replication
- NS5B = RdRP
is the long mRNA cleaved by host or virus proteases?
both
what is the role of NS2?
autoprotease that cleaves and releases the N-terminus so NS3 can cleave the other non-structure proteins
structure of 5’ UTR
6 stem loops, stem loop #4 has start codon
structure of 3’ UTR
3 stem loops near poly U region
HCV life cycle (6)
- binds receptor on hepatocytes
- fusion and uncoating
- translating, processing
- replication
- assembly
- release
2 models of lipo-viral particles
- two-particle model
- single-particle model
3 receptors for HCV entry
- CD81
- CLDN-1
- OCLN
3 co-receptors for HCV entry
- GAGs
- LDLR
- SR-BI
what play a prominent role in viral entry? how?
lipoproteins via lipoviral particles
what type of entry is used by HCV?
clathrin-mediated
1st step of HCV when it is in the cell
TRANSLATION