Objective: The intact hepatitis C virus (HCV) cell culture system has provided a powerful tool for studying the interaction between HCV and host cell. We applied proteomic techniques to globally analyze the protein expression profiles of Huh7 in the absence and presence of HCV, with the aim to elucidate the host cell components response to HCV.
Methods: Proteomic and molecular biology techniques were used for this aim.
Results: The expression of many proteins, including regucalcin, centriolin and several keratins, was up-regulated, after HCV transfection. Among the down-regulated expression proteins, the heat-shock protein family was of prime significance. Subsequently, we studied the role of heat stress in the interaction between HCV and host cell, based on proteomics analysis. We found heat stress did not affect the production of HCV in this in vitro cell culture system.
Conclusions: Moreover, this study also provided the global information of proteomic alteration of Huh7 cells in the presence of intact HCV and further improved the understanding of the mechanism of interaction between HCV and host cell. We also draw a conclusion that heat stress had no affect on the production of HCV.
Copyright 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel.