, 2012, Gane et al., 2013 and Matthews and Lancaster, 2012) have been developed and show increased viral clearance rates. However, genotype-dependent differences in drug sensitivity and viral resistance highlight the need for additional drugs for future Cilengitide combination therapy. The HCV encoded viroporin p7 is an attractive target for therapeutic intervention since it is essential for viral assembly and egress (Tedbury et al., 2011 and Wozniak et al., 2010). However, clinical trials of p7 inhibitors, including the adamantane-derivatives amantadine and rimantadine,

have showed limited efficacy at concentrations that can be achieved in man, consistent with in vitro observations ( Fong et al., 1999, Griffin et al., 2008, Jubin et al., 2000, Steinmann et al., 2007a and Steinmann et al., 2007b). A recent study by OuYang et al., elucidated an NMR structure of HCV p7 strain EUH1480 (GT5A) and predicted the amantadine binding domain. Both amantadine and rimantadine

are suggested to hinder the p7 channel from opening by restricting movement of helical segments in the p7 hexamer. The authors report variations in the adamantane-binding pocket which may explain the broad range of responses to inhibitors reported for diverse HCV genotypes ( OuYang et al., 2013). The majority of in vitro studies on p7 inhibitors have characterised the effect of compounds on virus assembly and the infectivity of secreted click here particles. Cobimetinib in vivo However, these studies did not address the ability of HCV to transmit via cell-to-cell contacts, a dominant route of

viral transmission for several HCV genotypes ( Brimacombe et al., 2011, Catanese et al., 2013, Meredith et al., 2013 and Timpe et al., 2008). We therefore assessed the efficacy of several known p7 inhibitors to prevent HCV cell-to-cell transmission, including the amantadine-derivative Rimantadine, the long alkyl-chain iminosugar NN-DNJ ( StGelais et al., 2007 and Wozniak et al., 2010) and the small molecule inhibitor BIT225 ( Luscombe et al., 2010). We previously reported that diverse strains of HCV can transmit effectively via the cell-to-cell route, with J6/JFH (GT2A/2A) showing a distinct preference for cell-to-cell infection, while SA13/JFH (GT5A/2A) transmitted with equal efficiency by either route ( Brimacombe et al., 2011 and Meredith et al., 2013). Furthermore, HCV SA13/JFH is the only published infectious GT5 strain and has a closely related sequence to EUH1480, the subject of the recent p7 NMR study ( OuYang et al., 2013). To determine the sensitivity of HCV J6/JFH and SA13/JFH to p7 inhibitors BIT225, NN-DNJ and rimantadine, infected Huh-7.5 cells were treated overnight with increasing concentrations of compound. The drug was removed by repeated washing, conditioned media was collected over a 2 h period and infectivity measured.