About the Authors

Susumu Hamada-Tsutsumi

‡ These authors contributed equally to this work.

Affiliation Department of Virology and Liver Unit, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan

Etsuko Iio

‡ These authors contributed equally to this work.

Affiliations Department of Virology and Liver Unit, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan, Department of Gastroenterology and Metabolism, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan

Tsunamasa Watanabe

‡ These authors contributed equally to this work.

Affiliation Department of Virology and Liver Unit, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan

Shuko Murakami

‡ These authors contributed equally to this work.

Affiliation Department of Virology and Liver Unit, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan

Masanori Isogawa

Affiliation Department of Virology and Liver Unit, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan

Sayuki Iijima

Affiliation Department of Virology and Liver Unit, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan

Takako Inoue

Affiliation Department of Virology and Liver Unit, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan

Kayoko Matsunami

Affiliations Department of Virology and Liver Unit, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan, Department of Gastroenterology and Metabolism, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan

Kazuto Tajiri

Affiliations The Third Department of Internal Medicine, Graduate School of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, Toyama, Japan, The Department of Immunology, Graduate School of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, Toyama, Japan

Tatsuhiko Ozawa

Affiliation The Department of Immunology, Graduate School of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, Toyama, Japan

Hiroyuki Kishi

Affiliation The Department of Immunology, Graduate School of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, Toyama, Japan

Atsushi Muraguchi

Affiliation The Department of Immunology, Graduate School of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, Toyama, Japan

Takashi Joh

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology and Metabolism, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan

Yasuhito Tanaka

ytanaka@med.nagoya-cu.ac.jp

Affiliation Department of Virology and Liver Unit, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan

Competing Interests

Yasuhito Tanaka: Research funding from Chugai harmaceutical and Bristol-Myers Squibb, and honoraria from Chugai Pharmaceutical, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and GlaxoSmithKline. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SHT EI SM KT TJ YT. Performed the experiments: SHT EI TW SM KM KT TO. Analyzed the data: SHT EI TW SM MI SI TI KM. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: HK AM. Wrote the paper: SHT EI TW YT.