HEV-ORF3 Encoding Phosphoprotein Interacts With Hepsin

Background: hepatitis e virus (hev) is a major causative agent of acute clinical hepatitis in adults through much of asia, the middle east and africa. open reading frame 3 (orf3) encodes around 120 amino acids of phosphorylation protein that associates with the cytoskeleton, while its precise biological function is still unknown. objectives: in order to understand the function of orf3 protein (porf3) in depth, hev orf3 interacting proteins were screened in human hepatocytes cdna library using two-hybrid system techniques and further verification of the interactions were carried out through co-immunoprecipitation (co-ip). materials and methods: the cyto-trap two-hybrid system technology, a classical method for analyzing protein interactions, was used to screen the porf3 interacting proteins from human hepatocytes cdna library. results: through the cyto-trap two-hybrid system, eight proteins interacting with porf3 were winnowed. the co-ip results confirmed that hepsin which is reported to function as the inhibitor of several tumors reacted with porf3. conclusions: out of eight screened proteins interacting with porf3, hepsin was confirmed to have specific interactions with porf3.