Inhibition of HCV infection in PBMC expressing initially both positive and negative strand of HCV RNA from individuals with a past spontaneous resolution of hepatitis C.

<p>PBMC naturally infected with HCV derived from asymptomatic persons followed for 7.4 (14-47/F), 16.1 (15-46/F) or 20.6 (20-49/F) years were treated (T) with 4 μM of TLV or left untreated (UT) in culture for 72 h. Except 20-49/F PBMC, the experiment was performed in duplicate. (A) HCV RNA positive strand was detected by RT-PCR with 5’-UTR-specific primers and amplicon specificity verified by NAH. (B) Virus negative (replicative) strand was identified by the strand-specific RT-PCR/NAH in which synthetic HCV RNA positive (pos) and negative (neg) strands at 10⁴ copies/reaction were used as specificity controls. Other controls were as described in the legend to <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0140312#pone.0140312.g002" target="_blank">Fig 2</a>.