부산대학교 도서관

Since the discovery of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in 1989, it has been recognized as a serious medical and public health problem worldwide. Most recent large advance in the HCV research is the introduction of NS3 protease inhibitors for clinical use. Rapid progress in HCV research field has been largely dependent of the development of HCV replicon and culture system. We isolated full-length HCV cDNA of JFH-1 strain from a fulminant hepatitis patient. The JFH-1 strain replicated efficiently in cultured cell lines without acquiring adaptive mutations and secreted infectious viral particles into culture medium. This infectious HCV system provides for the first time a powerful tool with which to study the viral life cycle, to construct anti-viral strategies and to develop effective vaccines. HCV culture system has been used for the detailed analysis of HCV life cycle. The results obtained from these studies were necessary to develop novel anti-viral compounds and prophylaxis vaccines for HCV infection. Anti-viral screenings were performed using HCV replicon and infectious systems targeting the viral entry, RNA replication, virus particle assembly and egress steps of HCV life cycles. Several classes of anti-viral compounds were identified and further analyzed for their mechanisms of actions. Furthermore, it is important to develop HCV replication systems with genotype except 1 and 2 because genotype 3 and 4 HCV infections have been spread in many developing countries.