Table 2.

Effect of GE4 on HCV IRES-dependent translation, using transient transfection of reporter RNA into Huh7 cells

	Luciferase activity in GE4-Huh7 cells (% control)
Tranfection of pIRF-3′NC RNA
Cap-dependent Fluc	97.3 ± 8.4
IRES-dependent Rluc	54.8 ± 0.9
Transfection of HCV replicon RNA
Replication competent replicon	25.4 ± 4.0
Replication defective replicon	19.6 ± 4.1

Control (transduced with empty pLHCX) or GE4-expressing Huh7 cells (transduced with GE4-pLHCX) were grown in 24-well plates before being transfected with 150 femtomoles/well of reporter RNA: either pIRF-3′NC RNA with cap-dependent Fluc and HCV IRES-dependent RLuc (a), or HCV Luc-replicon RNA with HCV IRES-dependent Fluc (b). Fluc or Rluc activities were measured 18 h post-transfection and normalized for total protein content. The results are expressed as percent of normalized luciferase in control cells (mean ± s.e.m of three independent experiments).