RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Ahlén, Gustaf A1 Chen, Antony A1 Roe, Barbara A1 Falkeborn, Tina A1 Frelin, Lars A1 Hall, William W. A1 Sällberg, Matti A1 Söderholm, JonasYR 2012 T1 Limited effect on NS3–NS4A protein cleavage after alanine substitutions within the immunodominant HLA-A2-restricted epitope of the hepatitis C virus genotype 3a non-structural 3/4A protease JF Journal of General Virology, VO 93 IS 8 SP 1680 OP 1686 DO https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.043745-0 PB Microbiology Society, SN 1465-2099, AB It has been well established that immunological escape mutations within the hepatitis C virus genotype (gt) 1a non-structural (NS) 3/4A protease are partly prevented by a reduction in viral protease fitness. Surprisingly little is known about whether similar mutations affect proteases from other genotypes. In the present study, we assessed both the HLA-A2-restricted CTL response and gt3a NS3/4A protease fitness. Similar to gt1, the 1073–1081 epitope was immunodominant within the gt3a-specific HLA-A2-restricted CTL response, despite sequence similarity of only 56 % between the gt1a and gt3a genes. However, unlike the gt1a NS3/4A protease, all residues within the gt3a 1073–1081 epitope could be replaced sequentially by alanine while retaining protease activity, at least in part., UL https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.043745-0