We hypothesize that upregulation of UBP43 will increase in vitro HCV RNA replication at baseline and will decrease the effect of IFN, and that upregulation of ISG15 will decrease baseline HCV RNA and increase the effect of IFN. UBP43 expression will be upregulated using a UBP43 expression plasmid pcDNA6-UBP43; ISG15 expression plasmid will be obtained by subcloning ISG15 gene into pcDNA6 vector. As before, HCV RNA levels will be determined in the presence and absence of IFNa using real-time PCR.