Figure 6.

Sequence and transient replication assays of full length viral RNA having mutations to evolutionarily conserved sites in siRNA target regions. (A) Sequence mutations are shown aligned with the canonical 5′ UTR in the presence of miR-122, and the complementary mutations in the structure of the 3′ terminus. (B) Transient HCV replication assay analysis of mutant full length viral RNA in wild-type Huh-7.5 cells. Luciferase expression measured 2 days post-transfection was used as a proxy to assess viral genomic RNA amplification in cells transfected with full length HCV genomic RNAs harboring a luciferase reporter gene and the indicated mutation. Data are the average of three independent transfections and error bars represent the standard deviation. The relative replication fitness of the mutant viruses versus wild-type (siControl) was analyzed by one-way ANOVA and P-values are indicated as follows * 0.05 to 0.005, ** 0.005 to 0.0001 and ***<0.0001. ns = not significant