Bartenschlager Ralf
Department of Molecular Virology, Hygiene Institut, University Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 345, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Curr Opin Microbiol. 2006 Aug;9(4):416-22. doi: 10.1016/j.mib.2006.06.012. Epub 2006 Jun 30.
There has been major progress in our understanding of hepatitis C virus (HCV) molecular virology in recent years. An essential prerequisite for this progress was the availability of functional molecular HCV clones, that serve as a starting point in order to establish cell culture systems. The first of these was the HCV replicon system, which used self-replicating subgenomic viral RNAs. However, these replicons only recapitulated the intracellular life cycle, and did not support production of infectious virus: this became possible with the identification of an HCV isolate that, for unknown reasons, replicates to very high levels in a human hepatoma cell line. Cells containing this genome release virus particles that are infectious in cell culture and in vivo. Without doubt, this system provides new possibilities for molecular studies of the HCV life cycle and the development of novel antiviral concepts.
近年来，我们对丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）分子病毒学的理解取得了重大进展。这一进展的一个基本前提是有功能性的HCV分子克隆，这些克隆作为建立细胞培养系统的起点。其中第一个是HCV复制子系统，它使用自我复制的亚基因组病毒RNA。然而，这些复制子仅概括了细胞内的生命周期，并不支持传染性病毒的产生：随着一种HCV分离株的鉴定，传染性病毒的产生成为可能，该分离株由于未知原因在人肝癌细胞系中复制到非常高的水平。含有这种基因组的细胞释放出在细胞培养和体内具有传染性的病毒颗粒。毫无疑问，这个系统为HCV生命周期的分子研究和新型抗病毒概念的开发提供了新的可能性。
