FIG. 3.

FTI-277 inhibits production of HDV genome-containing particles. (A) Following transfection with both HDV and HBV genome-encoding constructs, as described in Fig. 1 and in Materials and Methods, Huh7 cells were maintained in a daily changed medium containing carrier (0.2% DMSO and 400 μM DTT) alone (lanes 2 and 8) or carrier plus 0.5 μM (lanes 3 and 9), 1 μM (lanes 4 and 10), 5 μM (lanes 5 and 11), 10 μM (lanes 6 and 12), or 20 μM (lanes 7 and 13) FTI-277. On day 10 after transfection, cells (lanes 1 to 7) and supernatants (lanes 8 to 13) were processed for Northern analysis of HDV RNA, as described in Materials and Methods. Lane 1 corresponds to total RNA extracted from nontransfected cells subjected to carrier-containing medium. Molecular weight markers are indicated at the left of the figure. (B) The amount of HDV RNA in the culture medium of cells treated with the indicated amount of FTI-277 was quantitated using a phosphorimager and plotted as percentage of the untreated control (0 μM) (black bars). Prior to total RNA extraction, cells were monitored for viability (XTT assay) (grey bars) and supernatants were analyzed for protein expression and secretion (HBV surface antigen released into the medium) (empty bars).