Figure 5

Depletion of cellular cholesterol decreases HCV infection of Huh-7w7/mCD81 cells. Huh-7w7/mCD81 cells were pretreated with increasing concentrations of MβCD prior to infection with HCVcc (A) or HCVpp 2a (B). Huh-7w7/mCD81 cells were untreated (NT) or pretreated with 7.5 mM of MβCD (MβCD) and then treated or not with 2.5 mM of preformed MβCD-Cholesterol complexes (Chol) (C and D). After treatment, cells were infected with HCVcc (C) or HCVpp-2a or VSVpp (D). At 2 days post-infection, cells were lysed and processed as described in methods. P < 0.05 as calculated by the Mann-Whitney's test; *, statistically not significant difference in HCV infectivity compared to infectivity in absence of drugs.