HEV-Capsid Protein Interacts With Cytochrome P4502C8 and Retinol-Binding Protein 4

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a major causative agent of acute clinical hepatitis in adults throughout much of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The lack of an efficient cell culture system for HEV has greatly limited our understanding of the mechanisms of infection, replication, and pathogenicity of this virus. The yeast two-hybridization system is considered to be an efficient method for determining protein-protein interactions and screening interactive proteins associated with host cells.

In order to identify the host-cell proteins interacting with the HEV-capsid proteins, a fragment of the HEV-capsid protein p239 (amino acids 368-606) was used as bait; human liver cDNA library was used as a source of host-cell proteins, and the screening was performed using the CytoTrap yeast two-hybrid system.

The CytoTrap yeast two-hybrid system, which is also called Sos Recruitment System (SRS), was used to analyze the interaction of the p239 fragment with host-cell proteins.

We isolated 2 proteins, cytochrome P4502C8 (CYP4502C8) and retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) after 2 rounds of screening. Co-immunoprecipitation assays showed that both the proteins could bind in vitro to the HEV virion in HepG2 cells.

CYP4502C8 and RBP4 screened from liver cDNA library using the CytoTrap yeast two-hybrid system interact with HEV capsid in vitro.