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RESEARCH INTEREST

Publié le Monday 5 January 2009, mis à jour le Friday 19 March 2010, by Webmaster

Research interests


The Hepatitis C Laboratory studies the interactions between hepatitis C virus (HCV) and the hepatocyte. This team has a long experience studying the biogenesis and functions of HCV envelope glycoproteins. The activity of the Hepatitis C Laboratory is also focused on the cell biology of the major steps of HCV life cycle.



HCV is a small enveloped positive-strand RNA virus that has been classified within the Hepacivirus genus, as part of the Flaviviridae family, which also comprises the genera Flavivirus and Pestivirus. With approximately 170 million infected people, HCV is a major health problem worldwide. This virus often leads to chronic infection that can lead to chronic liver diseases, including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. No vaccine is available to prevent new infections and only a fraction of patients treated with the currently available therapies respond to treatment. Basic research on this virus is therefore necessary for the development of new antiviral targets. The developments of subgenomic replicons, retroviral particles pseudotyped with HCV envelope glycoproteins (HCVpp) and a cell culture system for HCV (HCVcc) provide all the necessary tools to study the major steps of the HCV life cycle. In 2010, the group joined the Center for Infection & Immunity of Lille (CIIL) located at the Pasteur Institute of Lille. Our current research activities focus on three topics: (1) functional studies of HCV envelope glycoproteins, (2) cellular aspects of HCV entry, (3) HCV replication and virus assembly.

(1) Functional studies of HCV envelope glycoproteins

The Hepatitis C Laboratory has been pioneer in characterizing the biogenesis of HCV envelope glycoproteins. More recently, with the development of new tools to study HCV entry and infectivity, we have focused our research on functional studies of HCV envelope glycoproteins. Our objective is to identify functional domains in HCV envelope glycoproteins, characterize their role in virus entry and understand the role of N-linked glycosylation of HCV envelope glycoproteins. We are also interested by the signaling induced by HCV envelope glycoproteins when they interact with their receptor(s).

(2) Cellular aspects of HCV entry

Another aspect of our activities is to characterize cellular molecules involved in HCV entry. Several putative receptors have been identified for HCV and we concentrate our activity on some of these proteins. We are characterizing several partners of CD81 and their role in virus entry. We are also analyzing the role of some lipoproteins in HCV entry. Finally, we are investigating the endocytic route used by HCV to penetrate into the hepatocyte.

(3) HCV replication and virus assembly

More recently we have initiated studies on virus assembly and replication. We have recently identified GBF1 as a new cellular factor involved in HCV replication and we are trying to understand how this molecule regulates HCV replication. We are also characterizing cellular and viral proteins involved in HCV morphogenesis and we are investigating the mechanisms leading to HCV particle assembly.


 The life cycle of hepatitis C virus

Huh-7 cells infected by hepatitis C virus. Analysis of the expression
of the core protein (green) and actin filaments (red)