Extraordinarily low density of hepatitis C virus estimated by sucrose density gradient centrifugation and the polymerase chain reaction

Demonstration of a hepatitis C virus-specific antigen predicted from the putative core gene in the circulation of infected hosts

“…The presumed enveloped virus was found at a density of 1.11 g/ml, slightly higher than 1.08 g/ml that has been estimated by sucrose equilibrium centrifugation (Miyamoto et al, 1992). The differences in composition and the ionic strength of the separation media probably accounts for these small changes in apparent density of HCV.…”

“…However, the ability to identify genomic RNA of HCV by PCR techniques (Weiner et al, 1990, Okamoto et al, 1990b has led to estimations of some properties of the infectious agent. For example, the buoyant densities in sucrose of HCV RNA complexes in plasmas of infected humans have been determined recently (Miyamoto et al, 1992). These studies identified two fractions of HCV RNA at different densities in sucrose gradients.…”

Association of hepatitis C virus particles with immunoglobulin: a mechanism for persistent infection

“…However, very little is known about the structure and the physicochemical properties of HCV particles. HCV is an enveloped virus, as indicated by inactivation after chloroform treatment (Feinstone et al, 1983) and the buoyant density of the virus in sucrose has been determined to be between 1.08 and 1.11 g/ml (Bradley et al, 1991;Hijikata et al, 1993;Kanto et al, 1994;Miyamoto et al, 1992). Recently, electron microscopic examination revealed the spherical morphology of HCV particles with a mean diameter of 55-65 nm (Kaito et al, 1994).…”

Cellular models for the screening and development of anti-hepatitis C virus agents

“…Hence, this review will focus on primary adult, fetal or immortalised hepatocytes and Huh-7 hepatoma cells and derivatives which have been largely used in recent developments. On the other hand, although the most natural form of the virus is present in the blood of infected patients as HCVser LVP (Andre et al, 2002;Kanto et al, 1995;Miyamoto et al, 1992;Prince et al, 1996;Thomssen et al, 1993), several surrogate forms of HCV virions have been developed including, transfected partial or full length HCV genomes, viruslike particles (HCV-LP) (Baumert et al, 1998), pseudotyped retroviral particles (HCVpp) (Bartosch et al, 2003;Hsu et al, 2003;McKeating et al, 2004), or cell culture particles (HCVcc) (Cai et al, 2005;Lindenbach et al, 2005;Wakita et al, 2005;Zhong et al, 2005). Recent data suggest that the nature of the virus is an important point to take into account regarding for example the cell entry process (Farquhar & McKeating, 2008).…”