NUCLEIC ACID CONSTRUCT CONTAINING FULL LENGTH GENOME OF HUMAN HEPATITIS C VIRUS, RECOMBINANT FULL LENGTH VIRUS GENOME-REPLICATING CELLS HAVING THE NUCLEIC ACID CONSTRUCT TRANSFERRED THEREINTO AND METHOD OF PRODUCING HEPATITIS C VIRUS PARTICLE

摘要

The present invention provides a method for replicating efficiently an RNAcontaining full length HCV genomic sequence and a method for producing HCVvirusparticles containing full length HCV replicon RNA or full length HCV genomicRNA byusing a cell culture system. Further, the present invention relates to amethod for producinghepatitis C virus particles which comprises culturing a cell, into which areplicon RNAcomprising a nucleotide sequence comprising a full length genomic RNA sequenceofhepatitis C virus of the genotype 2a, at least one selectable marker geneand/or at least onereporter gene and at least one IRES sequence or the full length genomic RNA ofhepatitis Cvirus of the genotype 2a is introduced, and generating virus particles in theculture medium.Still further, the present invention relates to methods of using an RNAcomprising SEQ IDNO: 12.