%0 Journal Article %A Frese, Michael %A Barth, Kerstin %A Kaul, Artur %A Lohmann, Volker %A Schwärzle, Verena %A Bartenschlager, Ralf %T Hepatitis C virus RNA replication is resistant to tumour necrosis factor-α %D 2003 %J Journal of General Virology, %V 84 %N 5 %P 1253-1259 %@ 1465-2099 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.18997-0 %I Microbiology Society, %X It was demonstrated using self-replicating hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNAs that both types of interferons (IFNs) (in particular IFN-α and IFN-γ) are potent inhibitors of HCV replication in Huh-7 cells. Because IFN-γ and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α trigger a partially overlapping set of antiviral defence mechanisms, it is tempting to speculate that TNF-α also inhibits HCV replication. However, this study shows that TNF-α does not affect HCV protein and RNA synthesis, nor does it synergistically enhance the inhibitory effect of IFN-γ. Taken together, these results demonstrate that HCV replication in Huh-7 cells is highly resistant to TNF-α. It is, therefore, unlikely that the increased production of TNF-α, which is seen in many hepatitis C patients, contributes to HCV clearance by inducing antiviral defence mechanisms in infected hepatocytes. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.18997-0