HCV attenuates mitochondrial apoptosis. (A–D) Drp1 and Parkin silencing accelerates HCV-induced mitochondrial apoptotic signaling. Huh7 cells infected with HCVcc (MOI, 5) were transfected with nontargeting (NT) or gene-specific siRNA pools targeting Drp1 and Parkin, respectively, and analyzed at 3 d posttransfection by Western blot analysis using antibodies specific to the indicated proteins (A and B), caspase 3/7 activity assay (C), and TUNEL assay (D) (mean ± SD; n = 3; *P ≤ 0.05, by unpaired Student t test).