Recently, cell culture systems producing hepatitis C virus particles (HCVcc) were developed. Establishment of serum-free culture conditions is expected to facilitate development of a whole-virus inactivated HCV vaccine. We describe generation of genotype 1-6 serum-free HCVcc (sf-HCVcc) from Huh7.5 hepatoma cells cultured in adenovirus expression medium. Compared to HCVcc, sf-HCVcc showed 0.6-2.1log10 higher infectivity titers (4.7-6.2log10Focus Forming Units/mL), possibly due to increased release and specific infectivity of sf-HCVcc. In contrast to HCVcc, sf-HCVcc had a homogeneous single-peak density profile. Entry of sf-HCVcc depended on HCV co-receptors CD81, LDLr, and SR-BI, and clathrin-mediated endocytosis. HCVcc and sf-HCVcc were neutralized similarly by chronic-phase patient sera and by human monoclonal antibodies targeting conformational epitopes. Thus, we developed serum-free culture systems producing high-titer single-density sf-HCVcc, showing similar biological properties as HCVcc. This methodology has the potential to advance HCV vaccine development and to facilitate biophysical studies of HCV. © 2014 Elsevier Inc.
CITATION STYLE
Mathiesen, C. K., Jensen, T. B., Prentoe, J., Krarup, H., Nicosia, A., Law, M., … Gottwein, J. M. (2014). Production and characterization of high-titer serum-free cell culture grown hepatitis C virus particles of genotype 1-6. Virology, 458–459(1), 190–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virol.2014.03.021
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