Development of an Infectious Surrogate Hepatitis C Virus Based on a Recombinant Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Expressing Hepatitis C Virus Envelope Glycoproteins and Green Fluorescent Protein.

In this study, to develop an infectious surrogate HCV based on an rVSV (VSV/HCV), we generated a novel rVSV encoding the native E1/E2 (H77 strain) and green fluorescent protein (GFP) instead of G. We show that this VSV/HCV efficiently entered human liver cells, including Huh-7 cells, expressed GFP in them, and propagated, but did not do so in nonsusceptible BHK-21 cells. The infectivity of the VSV/HCV, which was measured as the number of foci of GFP-positive cells, was specifically reduced by the addition to the cultures of chimpanzee anti-HCV serum, anti-E2 antibody, or anti-CD81 antibody. When sera obtained from HCV-infected or uninfected patients were added, infection was selectively inhibited only by the sera of HCV-infected patients. These data together suggest that this infectious GFP-expressing VSV/HCV could be a useful tool for studying the mechanisms of HCV entry into cells and for assessing potential inhibitors of viral entry, including neutralizing antibodies.
PMID: 25672345 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Japanese Journal of Infectious Diseases - December 24, 2014 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Okuma K, Fukagawa K, Tateyama S, Kohma T, Mochida K, Hiyoshi M, Takahama Y, Hamaguchi Y, Hirose K, Buonocore L, Rose JK, Mizuochi T, Hamaguchi I Tags: Jpn J Infect Dis Source Type: research