Fig 4.

E1E2 aptamers do not trigger an innate immune response in HCV-infected human hepatocytes. (A) E1E2 aptamers do not induce IFN-β in HCV-infected hepatocytes. A virus suspension at a multiplicity of infection of 0.1 containing a 100 nM concentration of each E1E2 aptamer or the control library was used to infect naive Huh7.5 cells. The supernatant was removed at 2 h postinfection. Twenty-four hours later, total cellular RNA was isolated, and IFN-β mRNA was detected by real-time PCR. The expression of IFN-β was normalized to GAPDH. (B and C) E1E2 aptamers do not induce G1P3 and 1-8U in HCV-infected hepatocytes. The cells were treated as described for panel A. The cells were harvested for total cellular RNA extraction at 24 or 48 h postinfection. The expression of G1P3 or 1-8U RNA was examined by real-time PCR and normalized to GAPDH. The data represent the means of three different experiments.