Skip to main content
. 2015 May 29;7(6):2745–2770. doi: 10.3390/v7062745

Figure 4.

Figure 4

Fragment encompassing aa residues 37–191 of HCV core contributes to ROS production by activating the expression of cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1). (A,B) Up-regulation of CYP2E1 expression in Huh7 cells transfected with plasmids expressing core(1–191) and core(37–191) but not core(1–36) or NS5B protein control assessed by the real-time-qPCR (A) and Western blotting (B); The levels of CYP2E1 mRNA assessed by RT-qPCR (see Materials and Methods) are represented as relative to the expression of β-actin; the resultant values are further normalized to the relative expression of CYP2E1 in Huh7 cells transfected with the empty vector pVax1; (C,D) CYP2E1 inhibitor 4-methylpyrazole (4-MP) suppressed the production of superoxide anion (C) and ROS (D) in Huh7 cells expressing the full-length core(1–191) and the N-terminally truncated variant core(37–191). Fluorescence levels are expressed as a fold-increase compared to the mock-treated Huh7 cells transfected with the empty vector pVax1. All data represent the means ± S.D. from the triplicate measurements done in three independent experiments. * p < 0.01; ** p < 0.001.