Figure 1: HCV proteins. The HCV genome carries a long open reading frame (ORF) encoding a polyprotein precursor of 3010 amino acid. This polyprotein precursor is cleaved to generate at least 10 proteins in the order of NH(2)-Core-E1-E2-p7-NS2-NS3-NS4A-NS4B-NS5A-NS 5B-COOH (25, 51).