Patent ID: 7338759

Claim:
A method of testing a compound for inhibiting HCV replication, comprising the steps of: (a) treating an Huh7 or Huh7 derived host cell comprising an HCV subtype 1b full length clone or replicon sequence having at least one adaptive mutation that is capable of productive HCV RNA replication in a host cell, or is capable of being transcribed into an HCV subtype 1b full length clone or replicon sequence that is capable of productive HCV RNA replication in a host cell, wherein the HCV subtype 1b full length clone or replicon sequence comprises, from 5′ to 3′ on the positive-sense nucleic acid, a functional 5′ non-translated region (5′ NTR) sequence, wherein said HCV 5′NTR sequence comprises at the 5′ terminus at least one of GCCAGCC; GGCCAGCC; UGCCAGCC; AGCCAGCC; AAGCCAGCC; GAGCCAGCC; GUGCCAGCC; and GCGCCAGCC; one or more protein coding regions, including at least one polyprotein coding region consensus sequence comprising a NS3 serine proteinase/helicase through NS5B RNA-dependent RNA polymerase encoding region that is capable of replicating HCV RNA; and a functional HCV 3′ non-translated region (3′ NTR) that comprises a poly (u/c) tract of variable length and an HCV extreme 3′ terminal conserved sequence of about 98 nucleotides with the compound, and wherein said HCV subtype 1b replicon is deficient in some or all of the structural genes C, E1, and E2; and (b) evaluating the treated host cell for reduced HCV replication, wherein reduced HCV replication indicates the ability of the compound to inhibit HCV replication.