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Journal of Virology, November 2003, p. 11875-11881, Vol. 77, No. 22
0022-538X/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JVI.77.22.11875-11881.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Hep3B Human Hepatoma Cells Support Replication of the Wild-Type and a 5'-End Deletion Mutant GB Virus B Replicon

Istituto di Ricerche di Biologia Molecolare P. Angeletti, 00040 Pomezia (Rome), Italy

Received 21 May 2003/ Accepted 13 August 2003

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and GB virus B (GBV-B) replicons have been reported to replicate only in Huh7 cells. Here we demonstrate that subpopulations of another human hepatoma cell line, Hep3B, are permissive for the GBV-B replicon, showing different levels of enhancement of replication from those of the unselected parental cell population. Adaptive mutations are not required for replication of the GBV-B replicon in these cells, as already demonstrated for Huh7 cells. Nonetheless, we identified a mutant replicon in one of the selected cell lines, which, although lacking the 5' end proximal stem-loop, is able to replicate in Hep3B cells as well as in Huh7 cells. This mutant indeed shows a higher replication efficiency than does wild-type replicon, especially in the Hep3B cell clone from which it was originally recovered. This indicates that the stem-loop Ia is not necessary for replication of the GBV-B replicon in human cells, unlike what occurs with HCV, and that its absence can even provide a selective advantage.

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