Hepatitis C virus core protein: synthesis, affinity purification and immunoreactivity with infected human sera.

The genomic region encoding the core (C) protein (amino acids 1-162) of hepatitis C virus (HCV) was expressed in Escherichia coli as a recombinant (re-) protein with the maltose-binding protein (MBP) using the prokaryotic expression vector pMAL-CR1. The fusion protein (C::MBP) was identified as a approx. 62-kDa polypeptide by immunoblot analysis using antiserum to MBP and HCV-infected human sera. The size of C::MBP corresponded to the calculated combined molecular mass of the approx. 20-kDa HCV C protein and the approx. 42-kDa MBP. The approx. 62-kDa C::MBP was purified using amylose resin as a matrix in affinity chromatography, and showed specific reactivity with HCV-infected human sera. These results suggest that C::MBP may serve as a source of the core antigen for immunological studies on HCV infection.