The field of hepatitis C virus (HCV) research has seen a major breakthrough thanks to the work of researchers at TWINCORE in Hannover. In a recent study published in JHEP Reports, scientists have successfully generated an adapted variant of the virus that can infect mouse liver cells in vitro. This development is crucial as mice, the common model organisms for laboratory studies, are typically resistant to HCV infection.
HCV is a significant global health concern, with an estimated 50 million people chronically infected with the virus. Despite the availability of effective therapies, the lack of a vaccine remains a challenge in combating the spread of HCV. One of the reasons for this is the inability to test vaccine efficacy directly in laboratory animals due to the virus’s specificity for humans and chimpanzees.
Dr. Julie Sheldon and her team at TWINCORE have made a significant advancement by creating an HCV variant that can infect mouse liver cells. This was achieved by leveraging the virus’s ability to rapidly adapt to different environments through high rates of replication and mutation. The adapted virus variant showed efficient replication in mouse liver cells, with specific changes in the virus proteins responsible for this new capability.
The study also revealed that the infection of mouse cells with the adapted HCV variant required the presence of specific human cell entry factors and the suppression of the innate immune response in the cells. By combining various mutations in a molecular clone of the virus, the researchers identified key mechanisms that enabled the virus to overcome the species barrier and infect mouse cells.
This groundbreaking achievement opens up new avenues for HCV research, particularly in the development of a mouse model for studying the virus. Prof. Thomas Pietschmann, Director of the Institute of Experimental Virology at TWINCORE, emphasized the importance of this discovery in advancing vaccine development for HCV.
The study, titled “Adapted hepatitis C virus clone infects innate immunity deficient mouse hepatocytes with minimal human HCV entry factors,” was published in JHEP Reports. The findings offer promising prospects for future research in understanding HCV infection and developing effective prevention and treatment strategies.
Overall, the work done by the researchers at TWINCORE represents a significant step forward in the field of HCV research and brings us closer to addressing the global health challenges posed by this infectious disease.
