Fig 7. SmEno gene suppression using RNA interference.

(A) Mean level of SmEno gene expression (+/-SD, n = 3) in cultured adult schistosome males (left), females (center) or schistosomula (right) at 72 hours after treatment with control, irrelevant siRNA (“Cont” black bars, set at 100%) or siRNA targeting SmEno (“Eno”, white bars), as determined by qRT-PCR. (B) Detection by western blot of SmEno protein (top row), in extracts prepared from parasites 72 h after treatment with SmEno (Eno) or control (Cont) siRNAs. Diminished levels of SmEno protein is seen in the first lane of each group of samples. Western blot analysis detecting a control schistosome protein (lower row) shows roughly equivalent protein amounts per lane. (C) Mean (+/-SD, n = 3) surface SmEno enzyme activity in live adult male (left) or female (center) parasites or schistosomula (right) after treatment with control siRNA (“Cont”, black bars) or siRNA targeting SmEno (“Eno”, white bars). Significant differences between suppressed compared to control parasites are denoted by ***, p <0.001. (D) Plasmin activity (mean OD₄₀₅ value +/- SD, n = 3) detected in live adult male (left) or female (center) parasites or schistosomula (right) after treatment with control siRNA (“Cont”, black bars) or siRNA targeting SmEno (“Eno”, white bars). All conditions contain plasminogen (PLMG), and tissue plasminogen activator (tPA).