Influence of adipokines on cell entry, replication and virus production of Hepatitis C Virus

Obesity is associated with increased viral load in chronic HCV-infection and with non-response to IFN/Ribavirin-based therapy. Fat tissue is known to produce a variety of cytokines and hormones leading to increased levels of pro-inflammatory markers in sera of obese individuals. In this study we assessed the impact of several adipokines on cell entry, replication, and virus production of HCV in cell culture. Among the tested hormones IL-6 and TNF-Alpha exerted a modest antiviral effect and Chemerin specifically inhibited HCV replication. Chemerin is a recently discovered hormone that is mainly expressed by fat-t…