FIG. 1.

HBV RNA-binding proteins p45 and p39 are detectable in liver nuclear extracts from NaCl-injected mice, while p39 and p26 are detectable in CTL-injected mice. (A) Northern blotting and UV cross-linking analysis of 20 μg of total liver RNA or 5 μg of liver nuclear extract prepared from the same liver were performed as described in Materials and Methods. Sex and serum HBsAg-matched mice (lineage 1.3.32) were intravenously injected with 10⁷ CTLs or with saline and sacrificed on day 5 after CTL administration. The upper panel shows the Northern blot analysis, and the lower panel shows the UV cross-linking analysis of nuclear extracts. (B) Predicted secondary structure of HBV in vitro transcript RNA.B used in this study. The secondary structure was calculated with the program MFOLD version 3 by Zuker and Turner available on the MFOLD server (71, 74). Arrows indicate the 3′ ends of in vitro transcripts RNA.C and RNA.D and of an oligoribonucleotide, RNA.E. The positions for all RNAs are shown according to the HBV ayw subtype sequence.