{"@type": "dcat:Dataset", "accessLevel": "public", "bureauCode": ["009:25"], "contactPoint": {"@type": "vcard:Contact", "fn": "NIH", "hasEmail": "mailto:info@nih.gov"}, "description": "Hepatitis\u00a0C virus (HCV) is an important human pathogen that affects \u223c100 million people worldwide. Its RNA genome codes for a polyprotein, which is cleaved by viral and cellular proteases to produce at least 10 mature viral protein products. We report here the discovery of a novel HCV protein synthesized by ribosomal frameshift. This protein, which we named the F\u00a0protein, is synthesized from the initiation codon of the polyprotein sequence followed by ribosomal frameshift into the \u20132/+1 reading frame. This ribosomal frameshift requires only codons 8\u201314 of the core protein-coding sequence, and the shift junction is located at or near codon 11. An F\u00a0protein analog synthesized in vitro reacted with the sera of HCV patients but not with the sera of hepatitis B patients, indicating the expression of the F\u00a0protein during natural HCV infection. This unexpected finding may open new avenues for the development of anti-HCV drugs.", "distribution": [{"@type": "dcat:Distribution", "description": "Visit the original government dataset for complete information, documentation, and data access.", "downloadURL": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC125543/", "mediaType": "text/html", "title": "Official Government Data Source"}], "identifier": "https://healthdata.gov/api/views/5ht4-tqst", "issued": "2025-07-14", "keyword": ["hcv-infection", "hepatitis-c", "nih", "ribosomal-frameshift", "viral-protein"], "landingPage": "https://healthdata.gov/d/5ht4-tqst", "modified": "2025-09-06", "programCode": ["009:033"], "publisher": {"@type": "org:Organization", "name": "National Institutes of Health"}, "theme": ["NIH"], "title": "Synthesis of a novel hepatitis\u00a0C virus protein by ribosomal frameshift"}