DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0503596102 ISSN:
Robust hepatitis C virus infectionin vitro
Jin Zhong, Pablo Gastaminza, Guofeng Cheng, Sharookh Kapadia, Takanobu Kato, Dennis R. Burton, Stefan F. Wieland, Susan L. Uprichard, Takaji Wakita, Francis V. Chisari- Multidisciplinary
The absence of a robust cell culture model of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has severely limited analysis of the HCV life cycle and the development of effective antivirals and vaccines. Here we report the establishment of a simple yet robust HCV cell culture infection system based on the HCV JFH-1 molecular clone and Huh-7-derived cell lines that allows the production of virus that can be efficiently propagated in tissue culture. This system provides a powerful tool for the analysis of host-virus interactions that should facilitate the discovery of antiviral drugs and vaccines for this important human pathogen.