FIG. 5.

The Ψ-packaging signal plays a critical role in the aptamer-mediated inhibition. (A) Diagrammatic representation of the Ψ-packaging signal of HIV-1 and the deletions that were performed. (B) In vitro competition assay performed with selected aptamers and using wild-type-Ψ or those lacking the SL1 or SL3 stem-loops as competitors. (C and D) 293T cells were cotransfected with pNL4-3.Luc (pVSV-G) and a plasmid that expressed the HIV-1 Ψ-RNA transcript as an exogenous transcript, and the p24 levels in the culture supernatant (C) and the fold change in the Gag mRNA levels (D) were measured. (E and F) 293T cells were cotransfected with pNL4-3.Luc.ΔSL1 or pNL4-3.Luc.ΔSL3 (pVSV-G), along with selected aptamers, and the virus-associated p24-levels were measured.