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Updated: Oct 25, 2025

Two Methods of Heterokaryon Formation to Discover HCV Restriction Factors
Published on: July 16, 2012
Cellular factors involved in the hepatitis C virus life cycle
Hui-Chun Li1, Chee-Hing Yang2, Shih-Yen Lo2
1Department of Biochemistry, Tzu Chi University, Hualien 970, Taiwan.
Abstract:
The hepatitis C virus (HCV), an obligatory intracellular pathogen, highly depends on its host cells to propagate successfully. The HCV life cycle can be simply divided into several stages including viral entry, protein translation, RNA replication, viral assembly and release. Hundreds of cellular factors involved in the HCV life cycle have been identified over more than thirty years of research. Characterization of these cellular factors has provided extensive insight into HCV replication strategies. Some of these cellular factors are targets for anti-HCV therapies. In this review, we summarize the well-characterized and recently identified cellular factors functioning at each stage of the HCV life cycle.
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