Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is the causative agent of hepatitis E in humans and the leading cause for acute viral hepatitis worldwide. The virus is classified as a member of the genus Orthohepevirus A within the Hepeviridae family. Due to the absence of a robust cell culture model for HEV infection, the analysis of the viral life cycle, the development of effective antivirals and a vaccine is severely limited. In this study, we established a protocol based on the HEV genotype 3 p6 (Kernow C-1) and the human hepatoma cell lines HepG2 and HepG2/C3A with different media conditions to produce intracellular HEV cell culture-derived particles (HEVcc) with viral titers between 105 and 106 FFU/mL. Viral titers could be further enhanced by an HEV variant harboring a mutation in the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. These HEVcc particles were characterized in density gradients and allowed the trans-complementation of subgenomic reporter HEV replicons. In addition, in vitro produced intracellular-derived particles were infectious in liver-humanized mice with high RNA copy numbers detectable in serum and feces. Efficient infection of primary human and swine hepatocytes using the developed protocol could be observed and was inhibited by ribavirin. Finally, RNA sequencing studies of HEV-infected primary human hepatocytes demonstrated a temporally structured transcriptional defense response. In conclusion, this robust cell culture model of HEV infection provides a powerful tool for studying viral–host interactions that should facilitate the discovery of antiviral drugs for this important zoonotic pathogen.

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is the causative agent of hepatitis E in humans and a member of the genus Orthohepevirus in the family Hepeviridae. HEV infections are the common cause of acute hepatitis but can also take chronic courses. Ribavirin is the treatment of choice for most patients and type I interferon (IFN) has been evaluated in a few infected transplantation patients in vivo. However, no effective and specific treatments against HEV infections are currently available. In this study, we evaluated the natural compound silvestrol, isolated from the plant Aglaia foveolata, and known for its specific inhibition of the DEAD-box RNA helicase eIF4A in state-of-the-art HEV experimental model systems. Silvestrol blocked HEV replication of different subgenomic replicons in a dose-dependent manner at low nanomolar concentrations and acted additive to ribavirin (RBV). In addition, HEV p6-based full length replication and production of infectious particles was reduced in the presence of silvestrol. A pangenotypic effect of the compound was further demonstrated with primary isolates from four different human genotypes in HEV infection experiments of hepatocyte-like cells derived from human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells. In vivo, HEV RNA levels rapidly declined in the feces of treated mice while no effect was observed in the vehicle treated control animals. In conclusion, silvestrol could be identified as pangenotypic HEV replication inhibitor in vitro with additive effect to RBV and further demonstrated high potency in vivo. The compound therefore may be considered in future treatment strategies of chronic hepatitis E in immunocompromised patients.

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