IDENTIFICATION OF THE NOVEL HEPATITIS C VIRUS NS5A INTERACTING PROTEINS IN YEAST TWO-HYBRID SYSTEM
The yeast two-hybrid system is a novel and sensitive technique to detect protein-protein interactions in vivo. Using hepatitis C virus NS5A as a bait, we screened a human hepatocyte derived cDNA library and isolated 7 novel proteins that can interact with NS5A in yeast. Human nucleosome assembly protein-related protein and human apolipopreins A-I are two of the cellular NS5A-binding proteins. The possible functions of the binding between NS5A and these two proteins are discussed.