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Updated: Oct 24, 2025
Development of a Hepatitis B Virus Reporter System to Monitor the Early Stages of the Replication Cycle
Published on: February 1, 2017
HCV Reporter System (Viral Infection-Activated Split-Intein-Mediated Reporter System) for Testing Virus Cell-to-cell
Fanfan Zhao1, Ting Zhao1,2, Libin Deng1
1Key Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Immunology, Institute Pasteur of Shanghai, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
Abstract:
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) spread involves two distinct entry pathways: cell-free transmission and cell-to-cell transmission. Cell-to-cell transmission is not only an efficient way for viruses to spread but also an effective method for escaping neutralizing antibodies. We adapted the viral infection-activated split-intein-mediated reporter system (VISI) and developed a straightforward model for Live-cell monitoring of HCV cell-to-cell transmission ex-vivo: co-culture of HCV infected donor cells (red signal) with uninfected recipient cells (green signal) and elimination of the cell-free transmission by adding potent neutralizing antibody AR3A in the supernatant. With this model, the efficiency of cell-to-cell transmission can be evaluated by counting the number of foci designated by the green signal of recipient cells.
