2005•Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesOpen access
Robust hepatitis C virus infection in vitro
Jin Zhong, Pablo Gastaminza, Guofeng Cheng, Sharookh B. Kapadia, Takanobu Kato, Dennis R. Burton, Stefan Wieland, Susan L. Uprichard, Takaji Wakita, Francis V. Chisari
Open full text 1,700 citations
Abstract
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.