FIG 3.
A369V increased both cell-free and cell-to-cell spread of S52ΔHVR1, whereas N476D/S733F increased only cell-free spread of H77ΔHVR1. Huh7.5 cells were transfected with HCV RNA of the indicated viral recombinants, including JFH1ΔE1E2 as a negative control. They were mixed with naive cells and plated at 12,000 cells/well in 96-well plates to ensure nearly 100% cell confluence. The number of FFU, size of the FFU, and number of single infected cells were automatically determined for the 6 replicates of each virus as described in Materials and Methods following HCV-specific staining after 24 h, 48 h, and 72 h. The error bars indicate SD. (A) Average numbers of FFU per well for wells not treated with AR3A antibody. (B) Average numbers of FFU per well for wells treated with AR3A antibody. (C) Average sizes of FFU in wells treated with AR3A. (D) Numbers of single infected cells per FFU in wells treated with AR3A.