Dengue virus- and hepatitis C virus-induced replication and assembly compartments: the enemy inside—caught in the web

Dengue virus (DENV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV), members of the family Flaviviridae, are global human health concerns. As positive-strand RNA viruses, they each replicate in the cytoplasm of infected cells and induce distinct membranous replication compartments where most, if not all, steps of the viral life cycle occur. This Gem briefly reviews the most recent insights into the architecture and functional properties of membranous replication and assembly sites induced by DENV and HCV. Flaviviridae constitute a large virus family to which medicallyhighly relevant humanpathogens belong. Among those, hepatitis C virus (HCV), genus Hepacivirus, has infected around 170 million individuals worldwide and is a major cause of liver diseases, while dengue virus (DENV), genus Flavivirus, causes the most prevalent arthropod-borne viral disease, with an estimated 100 million symptomatic human infections per year. While direct-acting antivi-rals for treatmentofHCVinfectionshave recentlybeenapproved, it is expected that only a small proportion of infected individuals world-wide will benefit from this treatment. In case of DENV infection, neither selective therapy nor prophylactic vaccines exist. Thus, there are unmet medical needs for the development of novel treatmen