Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection leading to chronic hepatitis is a major factor in the causation of liver cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and liver failure. This process may involve the interplay of various host cell factors, as well as the interaction of these factors with viral RNA and proteins. We report a novel strategy using a sequencespecific biotinylated peptide nucleic acid ( The hepatitis C virus, a blood-borne pathogen that causes chronic hepatitis, is the primary reason for liver transplantation in the United States. HCV 1 preferentially replicates in liver tissue without any direct cytopathic effect and thus is able to maintain long term, persistent infection. More than 50% of HCV-infected patients do not respond to treatment; instead, the majority of patients develop chronic hepatitis C, which leads to progressive liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, end-stage liver disease, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The hepatitis C virus is a positive single-stranded RNA virus of a 9.6-kb genome. After its entry into cells, the (ϩ) strand RNA first serves as a messenger RNA for the translation of viral proteins. Newly synthesized HCV replicase (NS5B) then copies the (ϩ) strand RNA genome into the (Ϫ) strand RNA, which serves as a template for the production of the viral genome. The conserved 5Ј-and 3Ј-nontranslated (5ЈNTR and 3ЈNTR) regions of the HCV genome have multiple regulatory elements that are essential for replication of HCV and translation of viral proteins. Although the 5ЈNTR of HCV contains the internal ribosomal entry site, which is required for capindependent translation of (ϩ) strand HCV RNA (1-4), it is also the 3Ј region of the (Ϫ) strand RNA, which functions as the initiation site for replication of the (ϩ) strand HCV RNA genome. The 3Ј regions of both (Ϫ) and (ϩ) strand HCV RNAs are highly structured and serve as the initiation sites for viral replication (5). Various cellular proteins have been shown to interact with 5ЈNTR of HCV RNA; these include La autoantigen (6) nuclear factors NF90, NF110, NF45, and RNA helicase A (7), as well as the polypyrimidine tract-binding protein (8 -10). Recently, we affinity-captured different cellular proteins interacting with HCV 3ЈNTR and identified them by LC/MS/ MS; some of these proteins were found to be essential for HCV replication as confirmed by siRNA (11).Another recent study using sequence-specific gene silencing of the RNAi screen has identified 26 human genes encoding proteins that physically interact with HCV RNA or protein and modulate HCV replication (12). A more direct approach would be to capture the replicating HCV RNA genome in situ under physiological conditions and then identify all the cellular From the §Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Centre for the Study of Emerging and Re-emerging Pathogens,

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Across all families of enzymes, only a dozen or so distinct classes of non-natural small molecule activators have been characterized, with only four known modes of activation among them. All of these modes of activation rely on naturally evolved binding sites that trigger global conformational changes. Among the enzymes that are of greatest interest for small molecule activation are the seven sirtuin enzymes, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+)-dependent protein deacylases that play a central role in the regulation of healthspan and lifespan in organisms ranging from yeast to mammals. However, there is currently no understanding of how to design sirtuin-activating compounds beyond allosteric activators of SIRT1-catalyzed reactions that are limited to particular substrates. Here, we introduce a general mode of sirtuin activation that is distinct from the known modes of enzyme activation. Based on the conserved mechanism of sirtuin-catalyzed deacylation reactions, we establish biophysical properties of small molecule modulators that can in principle result in enzyme activation for diverse sirtuins and substrates. Building upon this framework, we propose strategies for the identification, characterization and evolution of hits for mechanism-based enzyme activating compounds.

In sensory organ precursor cells, Sanpodo can enhance or suppress Notch signaling by promoting interaction with Presenilin or driving receptor internalization, respectively.

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