Establishment of a New Hepatitis C Virus-1 b Replicon

Backgrounds:Hepatitis C virus (HCV) subgenomic replicon has been reported to replicate efficiently and continuously in human hepatoma Huh7 cells (Lohmann, Science 1999). Their replications can be enhanced by introduction of certain cell culture-adaptive mutations in the viral NS5A region (Blight, Science 2000, Krieger, J Virol 2001). To extend the previous results to other isolated HCV clones, we have constructed another HCV replicon from HC-J4, one of the chimpanzee-infectious clones, and demonstrated efficient intracellular replications in Huh7 cells.