Human Apolipoprotein E is necessary and sufficient for production of infectious HCV particles in human non-liver cell lines

HCV has a narrow tissue tropism. Accordingly, efficient replication is only observed in the liver and in cultured human liver cell lines. The molecular determinants that are responsible for the restricted tropism of HCV are incompletely understood. Recent evidence indicates that HCV assembly is tightly coupled to the synthesis of human lipoproteins that occurs in liver cells. Specifically, Apolipoprotein B (ApoB), ApoE, and microsomal triglyceride transfer protein (MTP), which are all essential for production of very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) have been implicated in HCV assembly. To define the minimal live…