Fig. 5.

Effects of acetaldehyde-generating system (AGS) on interferon-γ (IFNγ)-induced cleavage of hepatitis B virus (HBV) core C-extended peptide. Cells were treated or not with AGS for 72 h and with IFNγ for the last 24 h. Cytosolic protein (100 μg/ml) derived from cell lysates were mixed with 10 nM of corresponding C-extended peptide, as described in materials and methods. Percentage of remaining (uncleaved) peptide was calculated as integration units obtained from intact peptide peak after incubation with cytosol divided by integration units obtained from identically treated unincubated samples × 100. Data are shown as representative kinetics of C-extended peptide cleavage repeated in 3 independent experiments with similar results.