Objective: To screen and identify proteins that interact with hepatitis C virus NS3 by means of T7-phage display system.
Methods: Hepatitis C virus NS3 was expressed by prokaryotic expression and used as a selected molecule to biopan the T7 select human liver cDNA library; the selected positive clones were identified using DNA sequencing and analyzed with BLAST program in GenBank.
Results: After BLAST analysis in all the positive clones, the proteins which interacted with the hepatitis C virus NS3 were found to be serpin peptidase inhibitor, clade A, member 1 (SERPINA1) and cyclophilin-LC.
Conclusion: T7-phage display system is a convenient, rapid and effective method for screening interacting proteins. The proteins thus selected will provide an important means for studying the pathogenesis and carcinogenesis of HCV.