Inhibition of Subgenomic HCV Replication Cycle by Sirnas Targeting Highly Conserved HCV Sequence can be Increased by Combination with Hairpin Ribozymes

Background/Aims: Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is an important cause of liver disease. RNA-directed antiviral strategies are suited to inhibit HCV replication cycle since HCV replicates in the cytoplasm of liver cells without integration into the host genome. We previously showed that siRNAs and ribozymes directed against the untranslated HCV 5' and 3'UTR reduced efficiently HCV RNA and Protein levels in HCV replicon cells. In this study we investigated whether combinations of U6-promoter-driven siRNAs and/or tRNAVAL-driven ribozymes targeting highly conserved regions have synergistic inhibitory effects on HCV . Metho…