Hepatitis C virus RNA replication is regulated by Ras–Erk signalling

The hepatitis C virus NS5A protein has been previously demonstrated to partially attenuate activation of the Ras–Erk signalling pathway, via a conserved class II polyproline motif located towards the C terminus of the protein. However, the role of Ras–Erk signalling in the virus life cycle remains undetermined. To investigate this, levels of RNA replication were measured in genotypes 1 and 2 transient luciferase subgenomic replicon systems in the context of either pharmacological or genetic (dominant-negative) inhibition of MEK1, a kinase in the Ras–Erk signalling cascade. Incubation in the presence of two inhibitors (U0126 and PD184352) resulted in a decrease in the levels of RNA replication, conversely incubation with inhibitor PD98059 resulted in a modest increase in replication. The results obtained with PD98059 could not be explained by an off-target effect on Cox-2, stability of replicon RNA or stimulation of global translation levels, suggesting stimulation by a yet uncharacterized mechanism. To verify data obtained using pharmacological inhibitors the transient replicon RNA was co-electroporated with a dominant-negative mutant of MEK1. This resulted in a reduction in replication, confirming data seen with U0126 and PD184352. Our data are consistent with the hypothesis that a low level Ras–Erk signalling activity is required for RNA replication. However, complete inhibition of Ras–Erk signalling is inhibitory. These results suggest that perturbation of this signalling pathway by NS5A may be a mechanism to regulate levels of genomic RNA replication.