Séminaire CIRI : Pr. Eike STEINMANN

Pr. Eike STEINMANN (Molecular and Medical Virology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany): "Culturing Hepatitis E Virus– recent advances and novel perspectives for basic science and drug discovery" .

Abstract:
Hepatitis E virus is the leading cause of liver cirrhosis and liver failure with increasing prevalence worldwide. The single-stranded RNA virus is predominantly transmitted by blood transfusions, inadequate sanitary conditions and contaminated food products. To date the off-label drug ribavirin (RBV) is the treatment of choice for many patients. Nonetheless, a specific HEV treatment remains to be identified. So far, the knowledge about the HEV life cycle and pathogenesis has been severely hampered because of the lack of an efficient HEV cell culture system. In this presentation a method and its characterization will be presented to produce high titers of non-enveloped and enveloped HEV particles. Using this cell culture system, different novel findings with respect to HEV entry, replication and assembly as well as drug design strategies will be shown.