Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a significant global health concern, affecting over 150 million people worldwide. It is a major cause of chronic liver diseases, including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). HCV is classified into seven genotypes, with numerous subtypes that respond differently to antiviral therapies. Among these, genotype 1, particularly subtype 1b, is the most prevalent worldwide .
HCV is an RNA virus belonging to the Flaviviridae family. Its genome encodes a single polyprotein that is processed into structural and non-structural proteins. The non-structural protein 5 (NS5) is a crucial component of the HCV replication complex. It consists of two subunits: NS5A and NS5B. NS5A is a multifunctional phosphoprotein involved in viral replication and assembly, while NS5B is an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase essential for viral RNA synthesis .
The development of recombinant HCV infectious cell culture systems has been a significant advancement in the study of HCV. These systems allow for the replication and study of different HCV variants in vitro. The high replication capacity of the JFH1 strain (genotype 2a) has been particularly useful in developing these systems. However, efficient infectious JFH1-based cell cultures of subtype 1b have been limited .
Researchers have developed efficient infectious JFH1-based cultures with genotype 1b core-NS5A sequences of strains DH1, Con1, and J4. This was achieved by using previously identified HCV cell culture adaptive substitutions A1226G, R1496L, and Q1773H. These viruses spread efficiently in Huh7.5 cells by acquiring additional adaptive substitutions, and the final recombinants yielded peak supernatant infectivity titers of 4 to 5 log 10 focus-forming units (FFU)/ml .
The development of these recombinant HCV systems is crucial for several reasons: