The results of our studies contribute to our understanding of the HCV lifecycle and HCV-associated steatogenesis and to efforts in developing novel host-directed antiviral therapeutic agents against HCV. In addition, with the finding that an increasing number of human enveloped viruses employ host LDs for infection [6, 7] , our results suggest that SKI-1/S1P-directed inhibitors may allow the development of novel broad-spectrum antiviral agents.