FIGURE 1.

siRNA-mediated knockdown of Rad51 impairs HCV propagation. (A) Huh7.5 cells were transfected with 40 nM of the indicated siRNAs for 48 h and then infected with Jc1 at an MOI of 1 for 4 h. At 2 days post-infection, protein expression levels were analyzed by immunoblot analysis using the indicated antibodies. (B,C) Intracellular RNA levels of HCV and Rad51 (B) and extracellular HCV RNA levels (C) were determined by qRT-PCR. The asterisks indicate significant differences (^∗p < 0.05, ^∗∗p < 0.01) from the value for the negative control. Experiments were performed in triplicate. Error bars indicate standard deviations. (D) Naïve Huh7.5 cells were infected with cultured supernatant harvested from (A) for 4 h. At 48 h post-infection, extracellular HCV infectivity was determined by focus-forming assay. (E) Huh7.5 cells were transfected with the indicated siRNAs. Cell proliferation at the designated time points after transfection was determined by MTT assay. Data represent average from at least three independent experiments.