Cloned genomes of infectious hepatitis C viruses and uses thereof
AssigneeThe United States of America, as represented by the Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services
InventorsMasayuki Yanagi, Jens Bukh, Suzanne U. Emerson, Robert H. Purcell
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention discloses nucleic acid sequences which encode infectious hepatitis C viruses and the use of these sequences, and polypeptides encoded by all or part of these sequences, in the development of vaccines and diagnostics for HCV and in the development of screening assays for the identification of antiviral agents for HCV.
Claims24
A purified and isolated nucleic acid molecule which encodes human hepatitis C virus, wherein expression of said molecule in transfected cells results in production of virus when transfected into cells, wherein said molecule encodes the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:3 shown in FIGS. 14G-14H.
A purified and isolated nucleic acid molecule acid molecule which encodes human hepatitis C virus, wherein expression of said molecule in transfected cells results in production of virus, wherein said molecule encodes the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
- 1 shown in FIGS. 4G-4H.
A purified and isolated nucleic acid molecule which encodes human hepatitis C virus, wherein expression of said molecule in transfected cells results in production of virus, wherein a fragment of said molecule which encodes the structural region of hepatitis C virus has been replaced by the structural region from the genome of another hepatitis C virus strain.
A purified and isolated nucleic acid molecule which encodes human hepatitis C virus, wherein expression of said molecule in transfected cells results in production of virus, wherein a fragment of the nucleic acid molecule which encodes at least one HCV protein has been replaced by a fragment of the genome of another hepatitis C virus strain which encodes the corresponding protein.
A purified and isolated nucleic acid molecule which encodes human hepatitis C virus, wherein expression of said molecule in transfected cells results in production of virus, wherein a fragment of the molecule encoding all or part of an HCV protein has been deleted and, wherein the HCV protein is selected from the group consisting of P7, NS4B and NS5A proteins.
A cassette vector for cloning viral genomes comprising a nucleic acid molecule which encodes human hepatitis C virus, wherein expression of said molecule in transfected cells results in production of virus when transfected into cells, wherein said molecule encodes the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
- 3 and wherein an additional DNA sequence contains at least one fragment of the HCV genome from any strain is inserted into said vector, said vector reading in the correct phase for expression of sequences and having an active promoter sequence upstream thereof.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.