Hepatitis C virus NS5A protein binds TBP and p53, inhibiting their DNA binding and p53 interactions with TBP and ERCC3.

Among the hepatotropic viruses, hepatitis C virus (HCV) is considered to be the leading cause of liver disease in humans, affecting ∼2% of the world population. HCV-encoded nonstructural protein 5A (NS5A) is a 56–58-kDa phosphoprotein, which is produced from the processing of viral polyprotein. The potential mechanism(s) by which NS5A is able to influence key cellular processes are largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the functional properties of NS5A. In vivo co-immunoprecipitation and pull-down assays demonstrated that NS5A forms a heteromeric complex with TATA box binding protein (TBP) and tumor suppressor protein p53. Mutants of TBP and p53 showed reduced binding to NS5A. To determine the functional relevance of these associations, we found that NS5A inhibits the binding of both p53 and TBP to their DNA consensus binding sequences in vitro. NS5A also inhibited the p53–TBP and p53–excision repair cross complementing factor 3 (ERCC3) protein–protein complex formation. Furthermore, NS5A repressed the p53 regulated p21 (WAF1) promoter and a synthetic promoter containing multiple p53 responsive DNA elements binding sites in HCT116 p53+/+ cell line. p53-mediated transcriptional activation from both promoters was reduced ∼3–5-fold following expression of NS5A.