Patent Application: US-33439206-A

Abstract:
novel methods are disclosed for the long - term culture of human primary hepatocytes in tissue culture system . this culture system supports the replication , gene expression and dissemination of a multitude of pathogenic agents that reside in , or pass through , the liver . among these , the invention advantageously provides for efficient hepatitis c virus replication , and dissemination . additionally disclosed are methods for the determining cellular receptors , hepatocyte cell subtypes , and host cell molecules required for efficient hepatic pathogen replication , expression and dissemination .

Description:
hepatocytes are primary targets of hepatitis c virus ( hcv ) infection . an efficient system of native hcv replication would greatly facilitate development of antiviral drugs and vaccine against hcv infection , which afflicts nearly 175 million people worldwide . the invention describes a replication competent primary hepatocyte culture system useful for understanding the regulation of viral replication , expression and dissemination in hcv infected human liver . studies were designed to ask : ( i ) whether the kinetics of hcv replication in primary liver cell culture supports co - localization of native viral proteins and hcv rna ; ( ii ) whether the nascent hcv proteins and rna assemble into infectious virus particles ; and ( iii ) whether hcv virus dissemination in human primary liver cells is dependent on cellular co - receptor cd81 , and the ‘ trans - receptor ’ proteins dc - sign an l - sign . these studies define at least three milestones : ( i ) to analyze the biochemical and morphologic criteria of native hcv particles synthesized in primary liver cells , ( ii ) to ascertain the requirements cellular proteins in hcv dissemination , and ( iii ) to determine the contributions of human primary liver cell types in initiating and sustaining hcv infection . the knowledge gained from these studies significantly enhances the understanding of the stages of hcv infection and dissemination in human liver , and helps designing and testing novel treatments for chronic hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma . lack of suitable cell culture system for efficient replication of native hcv has been , a significant handicap in our attempt to study factors that regulate viral dissemination in human liver . primary hepatocytes in human liver cultures may be distinct from isolated hepatocyte cell lines in their ability to sustain hcv replication , since they retain normal functions of key antiviral response genes . contributions of other nonparenchymal cell types in primary liver cell cultures , lacking in hepatoma cell lines , for example , liver sinusoidal endothelial cells ( lsecs ) that express cell surface lectins , l - sign which bind to hcv envelop glycoproteins e1 and e2 , likely enhance the chances of native hcv replication . analogous to the antigen presenting dendritic cells , kupffer cells in liver are known to produce cell surface lectins , dc - sign with strong affinity for hcv envelope glycoproteins . recent studies with hiv / hcv pseudotyped particles bearing hcv glycoproteins e1 / e2 suggest that the cell surface lectins function as ‘ trans - receptor ’ in hcv dissemination . these studies are designed on the premise that efficient replication of native hcv virus may require cooperative interaction of cell types accessible in primary liver cultures , that are lacking in isolated cell lines . the invention provides for efficient hcv replication in human primary liver cultures . the invention allows one to reach at least three milestones : 1 . to show that the native hcv proteins and rna co - localize in and proliferate in hepatocytes ; and that the dissemination of hcv is dependent on host cell co - receptor proteins . 2 . to characterize biochemical assembly of infectious hcv particles synthesized in primary hepatocytes that are capable of spreading infection . 3 . to evaluate the molecular basis of replication competent phenotype by quantitative proteome analysis . hcv is an rna virus of the family flaviviridae . six major genotypes of naturally occurring variants of hcv have been classified . these include 1a ( pcv - h77c ), 1b ( pcv - j4l6s ), 2a ( pj6cf ), 2b 3 and 4 . the hcv genotypes 2 , 3 and 4 are represented in less than 10 % of hcv infected people . these last three hcv genotypes show rarely in hcv infected patients in the usa . inherently slow rates of growth , of any hcv genotype has less to do with any ‘ mutations ’, but may be more a function how well each strain is able of evading human innate antiviral defenses . the native virus replication in the primary cell culture system of the present invention which retains the normal host response genes will be more suitable for identifying potent antiviral drugs and candidate proteins for developing vaccine against hcv infection . the culture system of human primary hepatocytes of the present invention can be utilized to replicate full length infectious native clones of hcv . run off transcripts of full length hcv genotypes , such as 1a ( pcv - h77c ), 1b , ( pcv - j4l6s ) and 2a ( pj6cf ), can be introduced into hhc cultures by lipofection , and viral rna can be rt - pcr amplified from infected cells via the culture system of the present invention . the difference in the rates of replication of the native hcv genotypes is more a reflection of their inherent replication properties , as mentioned above . the inventors of this invention initiate each culture with equal amounts of full length rnas of the infectious clones . the culture system of the present invention can be made by overlaying purified human primary hepatocytes on a feeder layer of cells for optimal attachment . the cocultures are maintained in hormonally defined medium without serum . the system is easily adaptable to culturing hepatocytes from individual donors , and thus suitable for the analysis of broader array of hepatotropic pathogen . vaccines and markers for liver diseases ; including hcv can be developed via the cell culture system of the present invention . the rationale for the markers is that as the disease progresses , human host attempts to fight off the pathogen by raising antibodies against abnormal proteins that are made as a consequence of viral infection . since the invention of the culture system , for the first time , faithfully replicates native virus , any altered forms of the proteins during the course of hcv replication can be identified by its specific binding to the antibodies from hcv infected patients ( the so called antigen - antibody interaction ). the inventors of the present invention ‘ display ’ the total protein from hcv infected human primary cells on the surface of recombinant bacteriophage ( the so called phage - display libraries ), and purify individual clones by iterative bio - panning the phage library with patient antibody igg . the individual protein coding genes from the phage - display library is then sequenced and characterized as prognostic markers for hcv mediated liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinomas . these marker proteins , the so called ‘ eptitopes ’ can be developed as candidates for vaccine development based on their properties to neutralize hcv propagation . freshly isolated human hepatocyte cell suspension was obtained from cambrex bioscience inc . ( walkersville , md ., along with relevant clinical information on the donor tissue ). after determining cell viability by trypan blue exclusion , the hepatocytes were plated on a semi - confluent monolayer of a hepatic stellate , feeder cell line for efficient cell attachment ( arnaud , et al ., 2002 ), in modified eagle &# 39 ; s medium ( mem ) containing 5 % fetal bovine serum ( fbs ), insulin ( 50 mm ), 1 % essential amino acids ( 100 ×) and penicillin / streptomycin ( 100 mg / l ). following incubation at 37 ° c . in 5 % co 2 for 3 hours , media was replaced by a hormonally defined medium ( hdm ) comprised of : albumin ( 2 g / l ), glucose ( 2 g / l ), galactose ( 2 g / l ), ornithine ( 0 . 1 g / l ), proline ( 0 . 03 g / l ), nicotinamide ( 0 . 610 g / l ), zncl 2 ( 0 . 544 mg / l ), znso4 ( 0 . 75 mg / l ), cuso 4 ( 0 . 2 mg / l ), mnso 4 ( 0 . 025 mg / l ), glutamine ( 5 mm ), its ( insulin transferrin . sodium selenite ; 1 g / l ), dexamethasone ( 10 − 7 m ), tgf α ( 20 ng / ml ), 1 % essential amino acids ( 100 ×) and penicillin / streptomycin ( 100 mg / l ). during long - term culture , media was replaced by fresh hdm every 48 hours . within four weeks , the hepatocyte culture forms vertical growth ( fig1 a and b show histological sections through a sixty day hepatocyte culture ). the feeder cells , which require fbs for growth , were attenuated during long term culture in hdm medium ( which lacks fbs ). all subsequent studies were carried out on hepatocytes revived from frozen stocks of sixty - day culture . paraffin embedded tissue sections ( 5 micron thick ) were deparaffinized and dehydrated by incubating successively with increasing concentrations of ethanol and stained in harris hematoxylin solution ( sigma ) for 30 minutes . stained sections were rinsed in tap water and dipped 6 times in differentiating solution , then dipped in 95 % ethanol for two minutes . the sections were stained in alcoholic eosin y ( sigma ) for 20 minutes and washed in 100 % ethanol 5 times for 3 minutes each , cleared in xylene and mounted under a cover slip using gel / mount ( biomeda corp .). sinusoidal endothelial cells were stained ( using the vectastain protocol ) with factor viii primary antibody ( vector labs ) and biotinylated secondary anti - rabbit anti - body ( vector labs ) ( fig1 c ). to characterize the biochemical markers for hepatocyte function , the rna samples from 30 - day and 60 - day old cultures were analyzed for the levels of expression of ( i ) albumin , ( ii ) alpha - fetoprotein , ( iii ) cytokeratin 18 , ( iv ), tgf - β1 . fig2 shows results using a 30 - day culture . rna was isolated using trizol ls reagent ( invitrogen ) as per manufacturer &# 39 ; s protocol . the precipitated rna was dissolved in rnase - free water by incubating for 10 minutes at 60 ° c . and stored at − 80 ° c . until use . the following pcr cycle conditions were established ( using gene amp pcr system 9700 pe ; applied biosystems ). the conditions used were : 1 cycle at 55 ° c . for 30 minutes and denaturation at 94 ° c . for 2 minutes ; 35 cycles of amplification at 94 ° c . for 15 seconds , annealing at 60 ° c . for 30 seconds , and extending at 72 ° c . for 7 min . the reaction was carried out in a 50 μl reaction volume containing 25 μl of 2 × reaction mix , 1 μg of template rna , 0 . 2 μm each of sense and anti - sense primers , 1 μl of rt / platinum ® taq mix , and rnase - free distilled water to 50 μl . the amplification products were analyzed on a 2 % agarose gel . the assays for replication competent hcv was based on nascent viral rna synthesis . the nascent viral protein was monitored by western blotting with specific hcv antibodies . runoff transcripts were prepared in vitro and introduced into culture cells by lipofection with fugene - 6 ( roche ) as per manufacturer &# 39 ; s protocol . one microgram each of the wild type and polymerase mutant transcript was transfected into each six well plate . maximum efficiency was obtained using a transfection ratio of 1 μg of hcv rna and 6 μl of fugene - 6 in serum free medium ( in a final transfection mixture volume of 100 μl ). twenty four hours after transfection , the medium was replaced with freshly made defined growth media and the cells were allowed to grow for the indicated time period . to determine the replication of hcv rna , infected cells were metabolically labeled with 5 - bromouridine - 5 ′- triphosphate ( br - utp ) ( fig3 ). the protocol for br - utp - labeling was as follows : hepatocyte cultures were grown in 6 well plates and were transfected with hcv rna using fugene 6 as described above . the cells were incubated with actinomycin d ( 5 mg / ml ) for 30 min to inhibit cellular dna - dependent rna polymerases . to introduce br - utp into the cells , 6 μl fugene 6 reagent was mixed with 89 μl of opti - mem and incubated for 5 min at rt . five microliters of br - utp ( 100 mm ) was added to the fugene 6 mixture and incubated for 15 minutes at room temperature . following incubation for 45 minutes at 37 ° c . ( in 5 % co 2 ), the unincorporated br - utp was chased with fresh growth media containing 5 % fbs and hdm , replaced twice for 15 minutes each . the cultures were then washed with pbs and fixed with 4 % paraformaldehyde ( at room temperature for 10 minutes ), and rinsed twice with pbs , for 5 minutes each . free formaldehyde groups were blocked with 0 . 2 % glycine for 10 minutes . the cells were then permeabilized with 0 . 5 % triton x - 100 in pbs for 5 minutes at room temperature and washed with pbs twice . cells were then treated with 5 % normal donkey serum in pbs for 40 minutes at 4 ° c . to avoid non - specific binding of immunoglobulins , and incubated with primary antibody anti - bromodeoxyuridine mouse igg monoclonal prb - 1 ( molecular probes , 1 : 500 dilution ) overnight at 4 ° c . followed by three washes and treatment with secondary alexa fluor 568 goat anti - mouse igg ( h + l ) conjugated to texas red ( molecular probes , 1 : 80 ) for 1 hour at room temperature . br - utp labeled hcv rna in cells transfected with wild type replicons is markedly induced ( fig3 b ). considering that the br - utp incorporation into nascent hcv rna ( shown in fig3 ) represents a 45 minute ‘ pulse ’ labeling of cells ( three day post - transfection with hcv replicons ), the results suggest a strong rate of hcv replication in human primary hepatocytes . next , whether the nascent viral proteins and rna co - localized in similar cellular compartments was determined by confocal microscopy . hcv proteins ( green punctuate cytoplasmic structures , fig4 , panels b and e ), and the rna ( red , fig4 , panels a and d ), overlapped as orange cytoplasmic granules ( fig4 , panels c and f ) by confocal microscopy ( the scanning laser microscope equipped for 476 - nm ( fitc ) and 529 - nm ( cy5 ) and 586 - nm ( texas red ). replication of infectious clones of hcv : we determined hcv permissive properties of human primary hepatocyte cultures by introducing full length genomic clones of hcv genotypes 1a , 1b and 2a into the culture system by transfection methods outlined above . as shown in fig5 a , cultures transfected with full length genomic clones of the hcv genotypes showed differences in their rates of replication ; genotype 1a being the fastest replicating strain . we next determined if the propagation of hcv was dependent on viral interaction with cd81 co - receptor . cultures pre - incubated with monoclonal antibody against cd81 ( fig6 a ) showed complete block of hcv replication ( data from only hcv genotype 1a replication is shown ). next important issue is whether our primary culture system for replicating full length hcv clones produces infectious hcv . we tested the presence of infectious virus in the culture media from cells transfected with the hcv genotypes ( shown in fig5 a ). when the virus stocks from filtered culture media was used to inoculate naïve cultures , the rate of hcv replication ( fig5 b ) with respect to the three hcv genotypes was similar to cells transfected with the full length genomic clones ( fig5 a ). in natural infections patients with hcv genotype 1 infection are less responsive to ifn therapy than for example , hcv genotype 2a infections . we reasoned that the relative sensitivities of the various hcv strains to ifn therapy may be related to the virus mediated down regulation of host cell immunity . since we are able to replicate native strains of hcv in our in vitro system , we next asked whether hcv replication shows differential sensitivities to inhibition by ifn alpha ( fig6 b ). as shown in fig6 b , hcv genotype 1 is far less responsive to ifn treatment than is hcv genotype 2a , analogous to the experience in clinical setting . overall , these results suggest that our culture system of primary hepatocytes is optimal for the replication of native hcv virus ; and the host response to viral infection recapitulates natural infection in human populations . thus our approach to propagate native hcv in human primary liver cell cultures appears uniquely suited for the evaluation of potent antiviral drugs and candidate vaccine against hcv infection . replication of full length , infectious clones of hcv genotypes 1a , 1b & amp ; 2a : an important aspect of the human primary hepatocyte system is that it should be able to support sustained replication of infectious clones of hcv . we show the proof of principle by introducing full length genomic clones of hcv into the primary hepatocyte cultures and observe virus replication for a period of time , up to a week . primary hepatocytes were transfected with full length run - off transcripts of the hcv genotypes ( using fugene 6 lipofection technique describes above ). total cell rna was prepared six days post - transfection , and the hcv rna was amplified with nested rt - pcr using primers that specifically amplify viral rna from the infected cell total rna . results from three independent transfections is illustrated ( fig5 a ) as relative rates of replication ( hcv genotype 1a as 100 %, and hcv genotypes 1b and 2a as 73 % and 53 % of 1a respectively ). a crucial test of the human primary culture system we describe is whether it will produce infectious hcv virus . infectivity of the hcv genotypes 1a , 1b and 2a was determined with filtered culture media from cells transfected with full length hcv genomic clones ( described above , fig5 a ). the test of the culture system we describe , is that it should replicate infectious virus particles ; and the infectious virus should be recovered from the culture media . that is , the virus particle recovered from the culture media should , upon inoculation of naïve cells , be able to initiate spreading infection of hcv . we challenged fresh human hepatocyte cultures with 1 ml filtered supernatant from hcv transfected cultures ( described in fig5 a , above ). the propagation of infectious hcv was monitored by analyzing viral rna , rt - pcr amplified as before , six - day post infection from total cell rna ( results shown in fig5 b represent three independent infections ). there are two important points to be made from these results : ( i ) that hcv virus produced in the human primary culture system we describe is capable of infecting naïve cells ; and ( ii ) the sustained propagation and the rates of replication of the three hcv genotypes is comparable to natural infection . this important result , for the first time , demonstrates that the propagation of native hcv can be reproduced in our culture system . an important test of our human primary liver cell culture system is that the replication of native hcv should be sensitive to its binding to the known host cell receptor . and importantly , native hcv replication in the primary culture system should recapitulate the response to therapy observed in natural infections . as we show ( the results in fig6 ), our human primay hpatocyte system meets both these conditions . antibody blocking of the cellular receptor , cd81 , ( which hcv requires for attachemnet to the host ), prior to virus infection , completely eliminates virus replication ( fig6 a ). in the test for ifn therapy , when we treat the hcv infected cells with increasing concentrations of interferon alpha ( results shown in fig6 b ), the replication of hcv is inhibited in parallel with the observation in natural infections . that is , hcv genotype 1 infection is far less sensitive inhibition by ifn than is hcv genotype 2a , similar to the experience of hcv infected patients . the important lesion from these experiments is that the human primary hepatocyte culture not only sustains native hcv replication , it also recapitulates the sensitivity of the virus to an approved ifn therapy . in total these studies confirm that the human primary culture system for the propagation of hcv we describe , is complete in its ability to replicate infectious virus and its sensitivity to therapy . this makes the human primary hepatocyte culture system uniquely suited for the development and testing of new antiviral therapy and vaccine against hcv infection . hcv entry is dependent on cd81 : culture were pre - blocked with 10 ug / ml mab cd81 ( santa cruz ) prior to transfection with hcv genotype 1a . viral rna replication was determined six days post - transfection as in 5 . ( b ). inhibition of hcv replication by ifn - alpha ( r & amp ; d system ) treatment . primary hepatocytes infected with the hcv genotypes were treated with indicated concentrations of ifn and the viral rna was amplified from total cell rna six days post - infection ( as in fig5 ). the invention , as exemplified for hcv above , is useful for the characterization of , and treatment and pharmaceutical development against , any disease that affects the liver . such diseases include : alagille syndrome , alpha 1 — antitrypsin deficiency , autoimmune hepatitis , biliary atresia , chronic hepatitis , cancer of liver , cirrhosis , cystic disease of the liver , fatty liver , galactosemia , gallstones , gilbert &# 39 ; s syndrome , hemochromatosis , hepatitis a , b and c , neonatal hepatitis , porphyria , primary biliary cirrhosis , primary sclerosing cholangitis , reye &# 39 ; s syndrome , sarcoidosis , tyrosinemia , type i glycogen storage disease and wilson &# 39 ; s disease . additionally , the invention is useful for the study of , and treatment and pharmaceutical development against , any parasite that infects or passes through the liver . such parasites include : e . multilocularis , echinococcus vogeli , schistosoma spp . fasciola hepatica , clonorchis sinensis , opisthorchis viverrini , opisthorchis felineus , cryptosporidium parvum , entamoeba histolytica , echinococcus granulosus as indicated above , the invention is also useful in the development and testing of pharmaceutical compounds and compositions . under this aspect of the invention , various compounds and compositions are applied to the cell culture and their effect on a disease or infection determined ( in the case of a parasitic disease , normally by challenge with the parasite ). alternatively , for parasites , the cells may first be infected , and then the pharmaceutical compound or composition then applied . the invention , as such , provides a useful means to rapidly screen many pharmaceuticals for their potential therapeutic effectiveness . appended hereto , as a part of the invention disclosure , is appendix i ( three pages ) of publications cited herein . the publications cited in appendix i are incorporated herein by their reference hereto . it is well understood that various other modifications will be apparent to , and can readily be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of this invention . accordingly , it is not intended that the scope of the invention be limited to the description set forth above , but rather be construed as encompassing all of the features of patentable novelty which reside in the present invention , including all features which would be treated as equivalents thereof by those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains . agnello , v ., able , g ., elfahal , m ., knight , g . b ., and zhang , q . x . 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