Figure 7.
Erlin-1 protein down-regulation impairs infectious virus production in an ongoing HCV infection cell culture system. Persistently infected Huh-7 cells were transfected with siRNAs as described in Material and Methods. Four days after siRNA transfection cellular extracts were prepared for intracellular RNA (A), infectivity (B) and protein (D) analysis and supernatants were collected for extracellular infectivity (C) analysis. Assembly (E) and secretion (F) rates were calculated using data from panels A, B and C. The RNA and infectivity results are displayed as percentage of the levels in siCtrol-transfected cells. The HCV RNA and the intracellular and extracellular infectivity levels in siCtrol-transfected cells were: 5.8 × 105 ± 7 × 104 HCV RNA copies per μg of total RNA, 2.3 × 103 ± 2.8 × 102 ffus per well, and 1 × 104 ± 1.1 × 103 ffus per mL of supernatant, respectively. Data shown are averages of three independent experiments, each one performed in triplicate (Mean; SD; n = 9). One-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s Multiple Comparison Test was used to determine the statistical significance (* p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001).