A Full Length – Mutant RNA Cloud (FL-MRC) was developed for synthesizing HEV mutant clouds, which were transfected in hepatoma cells as an inoculum to study the phenotypic behavior of the clouds.

Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) is a significant cause of acute hepatitis in adults in developing countries. In the Indian subcontinent, the virulent genotype-1 strain was isolated from symptomatic, fulminant AVH cases. The high mortality rate of pregnant women with hepatitis E infection and the lack of a vaccine against HEV underscores the need for additional basic research. Robust tissue culture systems to propagate HEV genotype-1 are known to be the mainstay for a better understanding of virus-host interactions and help design genotype-specific antiviral agents and evaluate antiviral efficacy. Several approaches can eliminate the inability to propagate HEV, and we are exploring novel strategies to find one robust tissue culture system to propagate infectious HEV GT-1 clones.

Faculty: Dr. Naga Suresh Veerapu, Associate Professor