Antiviral effect and virus-host interactions in response to alpha interferon, gamma interferon, poly(i)-poly(c), tumor necrosis factor alpha, and ribavirin in hepatitis C virus subgenomic replicons.

ABSTRACT: The recently developed hepatitis C virus (HCV) subgenomic replicon system was utilized to evaluate the efficacy of several known antiviral agents. Cell lines that persistently maintained a genotype 1b replicon were selected. The replicon resident in each cell line had acquired adaptive mutations in the NS5A region that increased colony-forming efficiency, and some replicons had acquired NS3 mutations that alone did not enhance colony-forming efficiency but were synergistic with NS5A mutations. A replicon constructed from the infectious clone of the HCV-1 strain (genotype 1a) was not capable of inducing colony formation even after the introduction of adaptive mutations identified in the genotype 1b replicon. Alpha interferon (IFN-alpha), IFN-gamma, and ribavirin exhibited antiviral activity

SUBMITTER: Lanford RE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC140845 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature