Fig 6. The effects of six key differential proteins on HCV RNA levels.

(A) qRT-PCR analysis of HCV RNA levels by transfection of siRNA or over-expression of plasmids. (B) Luciferase assay of Jc1-Luc HCVcc in Huh7.5.1 cells transfected with siRNA or over-expression plasmids. (C) QRT-PCR analysis of HCV RNA levels in knockdown of CTSB or over-expression of vimentin in HepG2 cells after transfection with HCV replicon RNA. Western blot results showed the protein level of knockdown and over-expression differential proteins, and β-actin as protein loading control. (D) Huh7.5.1 cells were transfected with siRNA or over-expression plasmids of CTSB, then 24 h later, cells were infected with HCVcc (multiplicity of infection 0.1). At 48 h post infection, immunoblotting was performed with an anti-HCV core antibody. Each bar represents the average of triplicate data points with the standard deviation represented as the error bar. *P<0.05, ** P<0.01 and ***P<0.001 versus negative control