Targeting cholesterol metabolism as efficient antiviral strategy against the Hepatitis E virus

We used whole genome expression profiling to analyze the effects of Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) on the mRNA transcriptome of A549/D3 cells - particularly to identify differentially expressed genes which are associated with cholesterol metabolism. Gene expression profiles of persistently HEV-infected A549 cells (Johne R, Reetz J, Ulrich RG, Machnowska P, Sachsenröder J, Nickel P et al. An ORF1-rearranged hepatitis E virus derived from a chronically infected patient efficiently replicates in cell culture. Journal of viral hepatitis 2014;21(6):447–56.) were analyzed after 4 and 12 days of culturing. At the same timepoints gene expression profiles of uninfected A549/D3 (Schemmerer M, Apelt S, Trojnar E, Ulrich RG, Wenzel JJ, Johne R. Enhanced Replication of Hepatitis E Virus Strain 47832c in an A549-Derived Subclonal Cell Line. Viruses 2016;8(10).) cells were analyzed. 3 biological replicates were used.