Novel technologies for studying virus-host interaction and discovering new drug targets for HCV and HIV

A new paradigm for antiviral therapy focuses on targeting cellular genes that are critical for viral replication and pathogenesis. Several new technologies have contributed to the identification of such genes for human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis C virus. These include proteomic approaches that identify cellular proteins that physically interact with viral proteins, genomic approaches that identify and functionally validate essential cellular co-factor genes, and novel cell biology systems that facilitate studies of virus-host interactions.