In the present study, we demonstrate that highly potent NS5A inhibitors efficiently block biogenesis of membranous HCV replication factories. In this study, we used NS5A inhibitors BMS-790052 (daclatasvir), BMS-553, BMS-671, BMS-690; the PI4KIIIα inhibitor AL-9 (kindly provided

by Francesco Peri, Petra Neddermann, and Raffaele De Francesco, Fondazione Istituto Nazionale Genetica Molecolare, Milano, Italy); and the NS3 protease inhibitor telaprevir (see Supplementary Materials learn more and Methods). Huh7-Lunet/T7 cells transfected with HCV NS3-5B expression constructs containing the 3′ untranslated region were treated with given inhibitors, fixed, embedded into epon resin, and sections were examined by transmission electron microscopy. Additional details are given in the Supplementary Materials and Methods. Docking experiments were performed using the Sybyl X 2.0 program included in the molecular modeling suite software package (Tripos, Inc.) as detailed in Supplementary Materials and Methods. To determine the mode of action of highly active NS5A inhibitors, we used the daclatasvir derivative BMS-553, available to us when we started this

study and sharing the symmetrical molecular scaffold (Figure 1A). BMS-553 inhibited replication of genotype 1b- and 2a-derived replicons with a 50% effective concentration (EC50) of approximately 20 pM and approximately 30 pM, respectively, comparable with daclatasvir, 14 and was similarly selleck screening library active against the JFH1-derived full-length reporter virus JcR-2a 7 (EC50 approximately 50 pM; Supplementary Figure 1A). Cell viability assays confirmed that BMS-553 concentrations Quinapyramine were noncytotoxic up to

16,000-fold EC90 ( Supplementary Figure 1B). Unless otherwise stated, for all subsequent experiments we used derivatives of the JFH1 isolate because it supports efficient virus production. Time-course experiments revealed rapid suppression of HCV replication that was even more pronounced when cells were also pretreated with BMS-553 for 2 hours before infection (Figure 1B). Selection for BMS-553 resistance with Jc1 virus (not shown) revealed the NS5A Y93H mutation that was found in all tested genotypes in vitro and in vivo treated with daclatasvir, 19 and 20 arguing for the same mode of action of both compounds. This mutation increases resistance of JFH1-derived replicons or virus approximately 750- and 1000-fold, respectively. 21 Consistent with earlier reports, virus production was already suppressed 24 hours after treatment and much stronger than expected from replication inhibition ( Figure 1C), corroborating that NS5A inhibitors have a bimodal action, that is, impairing RNA replication and assembly of infectious HCV particles. 15 and 22 Importantly, replication and assembly of the Y93H mutant was unaffected by the compound, suggesting that a property of NS5A common to both processes is targeted by highly potent NS5A inhibitors.