Vitamin D3, 25(OH) vitamin D3 and the synthetic vitamin D3 analogue Seocalcitol reduce HCV replication

Background and Aims: Adding vitamin D3 to conventional HCV regimen has been shown to accelerate the viral response in treatment-naïve chronic patients with the HCV genotypes 1, 2 and 3. In addition 25(OH) vitamin D3, but not vitamin D3 and 1, 25(OH)2 vitamin D3 have been found to reduce replication of HCV genotype 2 in vitro. Here we investigated the anti-viral properties of all 3 natural metabolites and the synthetic vitamin D3 analogue Seocalcitol against HCV genotype 1. Methods: HCV replication was analyzed in LucUbiNeo-ET replicon cells, stably expressing HCV genes NS3 to NS5B in combination with firefly luc…