To date,the infectious cell culture systems of hepatitis C virus( HCV) representative of genotypes 1-3 have been developed with the aid of adaptive mutations identified from JFH1-based chimera viruses or replicons. Nevertheless,JFH1 is still the unique clone capable of spontaneous replication in liver cell lines. It is an urgent need to develop a universal infectious cell culture system for any HCV clinical isolate. This article reviews the progress in HCV cell culture systems,existing infectious HCV clones,and permissive cell lines supporting HCV replication,as well as the application of HCV replication and infection model in drug development.
DownLoad: