Blood-borne hepatitis C virus could mimic its entire life cycle in human fetal liver stem cells.

What is it about?

The development of pathogenic mechanisms, specific antiviral treatments and preventive vaccines for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been limited due to lack of cell culture models that can naturally imitate the entire HCV life cycle. Here, we established an HCV cell culture model based on human fetal liver stem cells (hFLSCs) that supports the entire blood-borne hepatitis C virus (bbHCV) life cycle, including viral adsorption and invasion, RNA replication, protein synthesis, viral assembly, and secretion of infectious virions

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Why is it important?

The inability to efficiently cultivate HCV in vitro has presented major obstacles in understanding its pathogenesis and developing effective therapeutics. However, our system would provide a useful tool for overcoming these obstacles and studying HCV–host cell interactions, antiviral drug screening, and preventive vaccine development at the cellular level in future.

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