By Imaging Live Cells, Researchers Show How Hepatitis C Replicates
Friday, October 31, 2008 - 14:21
in Biology & Nature
The hepatitis C virus is a prolific replicator, able to produce up to a trillion particles per day in an infected person by hijacking liver cells in which to build up its viral replication machinery. Now new research -- in which scientists have for the first time used fluorescent proteins to image hepatitis C virus replication in live cells -- shows that the microscopic viral factories are a diverse mix of big, immobile structures and tiny replication complexes that zip zanily around inside the cell.