Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a small virus belonging to the
family Hepeviridae. HEV is the chief cause of acute hepatitis worldwide,
causing approximately 20 million infections annually, which results in 60,000
deaths. The genome of HEV is a single-stranded, positive-sense RNA of about 15
kb in length and is categorized into three open reading frames (ORFs): ORF1,
ORF2 and ORF3. HEV GT 1 is known to encode an additional fourth reading frame
ORF4, which is expressed only during endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. The
ORF4 is believed to play a critical functional role in the viral replication of
HEV GT 1 isolates. Although the disease was discovered in the late 1980s, the
precise molecular mechanisms underlying the higher pregnancy mortality
associated with HEV remain elusive. The absence of an efficient culture system
and a GT 1 animal pregnancy model is a significant barrier to understanding the
mechanisms behind HEV-induced pregnancy mortality. This introductory chapter
focuses on the morphology, and genomic organization, along with structural and
nonstructural proteins of HEV. The information provided in this review on the
HEV proteins is likely to assist in understanding the deeper functioning of
structural as well as non-structural biology of HEV proteins.
Author(s) Details
Zoya Shafat
Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Basic Sciences,
Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 110025, India.
Please see the link:- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/mono/978-81-976932-1-2/CH1
No comments:
Post a Comment