CONVERSION OF DENGUE VIRUS REPLICATIVE FORM RNA (RF) TO REPLICATIVE INTERMEDIATE (RI) BY NONSTRUCTURAL PROTEINS NS-5 AND NS-3

Dengue viruses infect more than 100 million people each year and cause serious clinical manifestations. It is important to understand the re plication of these viruses so that therapeutic and/or prophylactic age nts may be designed. Dengue virus type 2 nonstructural proteins NS-5 a nd NS-3 were produced by in vitro transcription and translation of clo ned genes. Both proteins possessed RNA-dependent RNA polymerase activi ty as measured by their ability to convert purified replicative form ( RF) RNA to replicative intermediate (RI). The recombinant proteins, ho wever, required one or more cellular protein(s) for their activity, Ex amination of NS-3 protein sequence revealed heretofore unnoticed seque nce similarities with other polymerases.