DNA methyltransferases 1 and 3B are required for hepatitis C virus infection in cell culture

• DNMT1 and DNMT3B are involved in HCV propagation.
• Knockdown of DNMT1 or DNMT3B inhibits HCV subgenomic replication but does not affect HCV entry and translation.
• Knockdown of DNMT3A does not affect HCV infection.
• DNMT inhibitors 5-Aza-C and 5-Aza-dC inhibit the infection of HCV in cell culture.

DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) are responsible for establishing and maintaining DNA methylation, which are dysregulated in hepatitis C virus (HCV)-associated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this report, using lentivirus-mediated shRNA interference technology, we identified DNMT1 and DNMT3B as host factors involved in HCV propagation. Our results demonstrated that down-regulation of DNMT1 or DNMT3B expression in Huh7.5.1 cells severely impaired cell culture-produced HCV (HCVcc) infection. Furthermore, knockdown of DNMT1 or DNMT3B did not affect HCV entry and internal ribosome entry site (IRES)-directed translation but did inhibit subgenomic replication. In contrast, knockdown of DNMT3A had no significant effect on HCV infection, entry, translation, or replication, which suggested that DNMT3A did not play a significant role in HCV life cycle. Moreover, we showed that DNMT inhibitors 5-Aza-C and 5-Aza-dC significantly suppressed HCVcc infection, viral RNA replication, and protein expression. These results suggest that DNMTs are critical for HCV replication and may represent potent targets for the treatment of HCV infection.