Interferon Response in Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Infection: Lessons from Cell Culture Systems of HCV Infection |
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Authors: | Pil Soo Sung Eui-Cheol Shin Seung Kew Yoon |
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Affiliation: | 1.Laboratory of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon 34141, Korea; E-Mail: ;2.Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 06591, Korea |
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Abstract: | Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a positive-stranded RNA virus that infects approximately 130–170 million people worldwide. In 2005, the first HCV infection system in cell culture was established using clone JFH-1, which was isolated from a Japanese patient with fulminant HCV infection. JFH-1 replicates efficiently in hepatoma cells and infectious virion particles are released into the culture supernatant. The development of cell culture-derived HCV (HCVcc) systems has allowed us to understand how hosts respond to HCV infection and how HCV evades host responses. Although the mechanisms underlying the different outcomes of HCV infection are not fully understood, innate immune responses seem to have a critical impact on the outcome of HCV infection, as demonstrated by the prognostic value of IFN-λ gene polymorphisms among patients with chronic HCV infection. Herein, we review recent research on interferon response in HCV infection, particularly studies using HCVcc infection systems. |
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Keywords: | hepatitis C virus interferon interferon-stimulated genes innate immune response |
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