1887

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Volume 82, Issue 4

Interferon-α inhibits hepatitis C virus subgenomic RNA replication by an MxA-independent pathway Free

Abstract

(HCV) persists in the majority of infected individuals and is a major cause of chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Chronic hepatitis C is currently treated with interferon (IFN)-α or with a combination of IFN-α and ribavirin. The availability of an HCV replicon system (Lohmann , 285, 110–113, 1999) allowed the investigation of the effects of IFN on genuine HCV replication in cultured cells. It is shown here that IFN-α inhibits subgenomic HCV RNA replication in HuH-7 human hepatoma cells. Immunofluorescence, Western blot and Northern blot analysis revealed that levels of both HCV protein and replicon RNA were reduced after treatment with IFN-α in a dose-dependent manner. In further experiments, it was investigated whether MxA plays a role in the inhibition of HCV. The human MxA protein is an IFN-induced GTPase that has antiviral activity against various RNA viruses. However, HCV RNA replication was not affected in transfected HuH-7 cells that transiently overexpressed MxA. Moreover, a dominant-negative mutant of MxA did not interfere with the antiviral activity of IFN-α against HCV RNA replication. Taken together, these results demonstrate that IFN-α inhibits HCV replicons via an MxA-independent pathway.

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2001-04-01
2024-04-25
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Interferon-α inhibits hepatitis C virus subgenomic RNA replication by an MxA-independent pathway
J. Gen. Virol. 82, 723 (2001); https://doi.org/10.1099/0022-1317-82-4-723
/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/0022-1317-82-4-723
/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/0022-1317-82-4-723
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