HCV is a positive, single stranded RNA virus in the Flaviviridae family. The genome is approximately 10,000 nucleotides and encodes a single polyprotein of about 3,000 amino acids. The polyprotein is processed by host cell and viral proteases into three major structural proteins and several non structural protein necessary for viral replication. Several different genotypes of HCV with slightly different genomic sequences have since been identified that correlate with differences in response to treatment with interferon alpha. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein is thought to contribute to HCV pathogenesis through its interaction with various signal transduction pathways. In addition, HCV core antigen is a recently developed marker of hepatitis C infection. The HCV core protein has been previously shown to circulate in the bloodstream of HCV-infected patients and inhibit host immunity through an interaction with gC1qR. The NS3 serine proteinase (NS3P) is a non-structural hepatitis C protein responsible for proteolytic processing of other non-structural proteins; because of this, it is also the most extensively studied protein of the Hepatitis C genome.