It has been suggested that the hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects host cells through a pH-dependent internalization mechanism, but the steps leading from virus attachment to the fusion of viral and cellular membranes remain uncharacterized. Here we studied the mechanism underlying the HCV fusion process in vitro using liposomes and our recently described HCV pseudoparticles (pp) bearing functional E1E2 envelope glycoproteins. The fusion of HCVpp with liposomes was monitored with fluorescent probes incorporated into either the HCVpp or the liposomes. To validate these assays, pseudoparticles bearing either the hemagglutinin of the influenza virus or the amphotropic glycoprotein of murine leukemia virus were used as models for pH-dependent and pH-independent entry, respectively. The use of assays based either on fusion-induced dequenching of fluorescent probes or on reporter systems, which produce fluorescence when the virus and liposome contents are mixed, allowed us to demonstrate that HCVpp mediated a complete fusion process, leading to the merging of both membrane leaflets and to the mixing of the internal contents of pseudoparticle and liposome. This HCVpp-mediated fusion was dependent on low pH, with a threshold of 6.3 and an optimum at about 5.5. Fusion was temperature-dependent and did not require any protein or receptor at the surface of the target liposomes. Most interestingly, fusion was facilitated by the presence of cholesterol in the target membrane. These findings clearly indicate that HCV infection is mediated by a pH-dependent membrane fusion process. This paves the way for future studies of the mechanisms underlying HCV membrane fusion. Hepatitis C virus (HCV)2 belongs to the genus Hepacivirus of the Flaviviridae family (1) and has infected some 170 million people worldwide (2). In the majority of HCV-infected patients, the progression to chronic disease is associated with an increased risk of liver diseases and hepatocellular carcinoma. No vaccine is presently available, and the current treatment for chronic hepatitis C (a combination of pegylated interferon and ribavirin) has a limited efficacy (3). A more detailed understanding of the molecular mechanisms of virus entry would be beneficial to the development of novel therapeutic strategies.The HCV genome is a positive-stranded RNA encoding a precursor polyprotein of about 3,000 amino acids. This polyprotein is cleaved coand post-translationally to generate 10 viral proteins, classified into structural (capsid protein and the envelope glycoproteins E1 and E2) and nonstructural proteins (NS2 to NS5B), separated by the membrane ion channel polypeptide p7 (1, 4). The type I transmembrane envelope glycoproteins E1 and E2 form noncovalently linked heterodimers in the endoplasmic reticulum and are highly glycosylated, containing up to 6 and 11 potential glycosylation sites, respectively (5-8). Studies of the HCV life cycle have been hampered by the lack of an efficient and reliable cell culture system to produce and isolate the functional virus. Most re...

PtdIns(3,5)P(2) is required for cargo-selective sorting to the vacuolar lumen via the multivesicular body (MVB). Here we show that Ent3p, a yeast epsin N-terminal homology (ENTH) domain-containing protein, is a specific PtdIns(3,5)P(2) effector localized to endosomes. The ENTH domain of Ent3p is essential for its PtdIns(3,5)P(2) binding activity and for its membrane interaction in vitro and in vivo. Ent3p is required for protein sorting into the MVB but not for the internalization step of endocytosis. Ent3p is associated with clathrin and is necessary for normal actin cytoskeleton organization. Our results show that Ent3p is required for protein sorting into intralumenal vesicles of the MVB through PtdIns(3,5)P(2) binding via its ENTH domain.