Fig. 3. RNA interference of ATG5 and ATG7 inhibits nanopeptide-induced autophagy dependent cell death in latent HIV-T_CM cells.

a, d Lentiviral shATG5 and shATG7 transduced latently infected resting CD4⁺ T cells were tested for knockdown efficiency by western blot. b, e shATG5 and shATG7 transduced latent CD4⁺ T_CM cells were challenged with 10 μM NP-Beclin 1 or 10 μM NP-vFLIP-α2 for 24 h. Autophagy was evaluated in cell lysates by western blot. c, f Cytotoxicity of NP-Beclin 1 and NP-vFLIP-α2 was measured in cell culture supernatants. Densitometric analyses are summarized from four different donors and normalized to loading control ACTB with means. NP-S₁ = 10 μM nanoformulated Tat-Beclin-1 scrambled peptides, NP-S₂ = 10 μM nanoformulated Tat-vFLIP-α2 scrambled peptides. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001