Cell culture replication of a genotype 1b hepatitis C virus isolate cloned from a patient who underwent liver transplantation.

ABSTRACT: The introduction of the genotype 2a isolate JFH1 was a major breakthrough in the field of hepatitis C virus (HCV), allowing researchers to study the complete life cycle of the virus in cell culture. However, fully competent culture systems encompassing the most therapeutically relevant HCV genotypes are still lacking, especially for the highly drug-resistant genotype 1b. For most isolated HCV clones, efficient replication in cultured hepatoma cells requires the introduction of replication-enhancing mutations. However, such mutations may interfere with viral assembly, as occurs in the case of the genotype 1b isolate Con1. In this study, we show that a clinical serum carrying a genotype 1b virus with an exceptionally high viral load was able to infect Huh7.5 cells. Similar to previous report

SUBMITTER: Koutsoudakis G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3160967 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature