Recombinant Measles Virus Non-Structural C-Protein (a.a. 1-51)

Measles is caused by the measles virus, which is very infectious, it can spread through the airways droplets. Measles virus genome is single-stranded negative-sense RNA encoding eight proteins that the virus needs to reproduce, assembly and infect. Measles is a serotype and there are hundreds of genotypes in the world.

In the genome of measles virus, there are about 16000 nucleotides and eight proteins. H and F proteins are important for the virus to get inside the body. H protein attaches to the receptor of the host cell and F protein attaches the viral envelope to the host cell membrane. It consists of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase and nucleoprotein, its cell shape is helix. And two are non-structural proteins: large protein and phosphoprotein. They are the proteins involved in the life of the virus – replication of RNA, viral particles and interaction with the host cells.

The non-structural proteins of the measles virus are large protein and phosphoprotein. This huge protein is necessary for viral RNA replication, it acts on viral RNA transcription and replication. P protein is linked to the viral RNA polymerase complex, which helps copy and transduce viral RNA. Such non-structural proteins are involved in the lifecycle of the virus, especially in the replication and transcription of the viral genome. The C protein is a non-coding protein that undergoes post-translational editing (placed at one or more G residues at an editing location preserved in P mRNA) to create a C-terminally truncated C protein. The C protein works with the viral RNA polymerase and can control replication of viral RNA. And it also interacts with the host protein SHCBP1, which also affects viral RNA replication, though we don't know how exactly.

Figure 1. Model for the role of SHCBP1 in MV RNA synthesis and its modulation by the C protein
(Source: Ito M, et al. 2013)

MeV Active Nonstructural Protein C (aa 1 - 51)
MV Active Nonstructural Protein C (aa 1 - 51)