Twincore, Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research

2 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Immunology and Infection

Two Methods of Heterokaryon Formation to Discover HCV Restriction Factors

Anne Frentzen^*1, Kathrin Hueging^*1, Julia Bitzegeio², Thomas Pietschmann¹, Eike Steinmann¹

¹Division of Experimental Virology, Twincore, Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research, ²Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, Laboratory of Retrovirology, The Rockefeller University, NY

We describe two methods for conditional trans-complementation of hepatitis C virus (HCV) assembly and the completion of the full viral life cycle, which rely on heterokaryon formation. These techniques are suitable to screen for cell lines that express dominant restriction factors, which preclude production of infectious HCV progeny.

Immunology and Infection

A Cell Culture Model for Producing High Titer Hepatitis E Virus Stocks

Toni Luise Meister^*1, Mara Klöhn^*1, Eike Steinmann¹, Daniel Todt¹

¹Molecular and Medical Virology, Ruhr University Bochum

Described here is an effective method on how to produce high viral titer stocks of hepatitis E virus (HEV) to efficiently infect hepatoma cells. With the presented method, both non-enveloped, as well as enveloped viral particles can be harvested and used for inoculating various cell lines.