Figure 3.

Luciferase Knockdown by AgoshRNAs

Luciferase knockdown was determined by co-transfection of the reporters with the AgoshRNA constructs. HEK293T cells were co-transfected with 100 ng of the respective firefly luciferase reporter plasmid, 1 ng of Renilla luciferase plasmid, and an increasing amount of the AgoshRNA constructs (1, 5, and 25 ng). An irrelevant shRNA (shNef) served as the negative control, for which the activity was set at 100% luciferase expression. The mean values and SD are based on six independent transfections. Statistical analysis (two-way ANOVA) indicated that luciferase expression in the presence of antiviral AgoshRNAs differed significantly from luciferase expression measured with the shNef control (p ≤ 0.0001). AgoshRNA-HDV variants mediated significantly more robust inhibition than the AgoshRNA-T6 variant, whereas AgopshRNA-CPEB3 variants showed less inhibitory potency than the AgoshRNA-T6 variant (ns: no significant p > 0.05; **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001, and ****p ≤ 0.0001).