Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 28, 2021; 27(28): 4555-4581
Published online Jul 28, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i28.4555
Cellular factors involved in the hepatitis C virus life cycle
Hui-Chun Li, Chee-Hing Yang, Shih-Yen Lo
Hui-Chun Li, Department of Biochemistry, Tzu Chi University, Hualien 970, Taiwan
Chee-Hing Yang, Shih-Yen Lo, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Biotechnology, Tzu Chi University, Hualien 970, Taiwan
Shih-Yen Lo, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital, Hualien 970, Taiwan
Author contributions: Li HC and Lo SY wrote the manuscript; Yang CH and Lo SY drew the figures.
Supported by Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan, No. MOST 109-2320-B-320-011-MY3; Tzu Chi University of Taiwan, No. TCIRP106001-04Y3 and No. TCIRP106001-02Y3.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflict-of-interest is declared.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Shih-Yen Lo, PhD, Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Biotechnology, Tzu Chi University, No. 701 Section 3, Chung Yang Road, Hualien 970, Taiwan. losylo@mail.tcu.edu.tw
Received: January 27, 2021
Peer-review started: January 27, 2021
First decision: March 29, 2021
Revised: April 4, 2021
Accepted: July 9, 2021
Article in press: July 9, 2021
Published online: July 28, 2021
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.

Keywords: Hepatitis C virus, Cellular factor, Viral entry, Translation, Replication, Assembly, Release

Core Tip: The hepatitis C virus (HCV) depends on its host cells to propagate successfully. Hundreds of cellular factors involved in the HCV life cycle have been identified. Some of these cellular factors are potential targets for anti-HCV therapies (e.g., scavenger receptor class B type 1, epidermal growth factor receptor, Niemann–Pick C1-like 1, microRNA-122, cyclophilin A). A successful vaccine for HCV is still a challenge in the near future. Investigating the cellular factors involved in viral entry should help vaccine development. HCV is also a unique model to study the interactions between viral infection and cellular lipid metabolisms.