FIG. 10.

Effect of internal NS3 cleavage on the replication of HCV genomic RNA. HCV subgenomic replicon (HCV-SG) and mutant HCV-SG-NS4A(I25AV26A) RNA were independently cotransfected into Huh7 cells with control luciferase RNA. Two days posttransfection, total RNA was isolated to perform reverse transcription and PCR/real-time PCR as described in Materials and Methods. PCR products representing the antigenomic strand of HCV RNA were normalized against control luciferase RNA. A representative image of reverse transcription-PCR products and relative replication efficiency compared to those of the wild-type replicon are shown.