Figure 1.

RTD-1 inhibits HPV16 PsV infection in a dose-dependent manner driven by an interaction between viral capsid and θ-defensin. (A) HPV16 PsV pre-incubated with RTD-1 in serum-free medium, (B) HeLa cells pre-incubated with RTD-1, or (C) HPV16 PsV pre-incubated with RTD-1 in the presence of serum were added to cells for 48 h prior to measurement of GFP expression resulting from PsV gene transduction. (D) Alternatively, excess RTD-1 was dialyzed out of PsV+RTD-1 (d(PsV + RTD-1) combinations, with separately dialyzed PsV [d(PsV)] combined with dialyzed RTD-1 (20 μg/ml) to indicate removal of RTD-1 from dialysis cassettes (Ctrl). Each panel shows the percentage of GFP+ (PsV infected) cells ± SD as analyzed by flow cytometry. All experiments were carried out in triplicate. Results shown are representative data from 3 independent experiments (ns = not significant, ^*p < 0.05, ^****p < 0.0001, one-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett's multiple comparisons test against PsV within groups).