Figure 2

Amino acid substitutions within the conserved RGE motif of E2 dramatically affect hepatitis C virus pseudoparticle entry. 293 T cells were cotransfected with HIV-luc packaging vector along with HCV E1E2 mutant expression plasmids. HCVpp was harvested at 48 h PI and used to infect Huh7 cells. Infectivity was measured 72 h PI using a luciferase reporter assay. Numbers shown above the bars are infectivity of each mutant expressed as a percentage of the infectivity observed for the wild-type (wt) H77 E1E2. Values shown are the mean and standard error for a minimum of three assays.