Figure 4.

(a) Schematic representation of the PreT-V assay; (b) pre-incubation of HAZV virus particles with cranberry extract reduces viral infectivity. HAZV (10³ FFU) was incubated for 1 h at 37 °C without or with different concentrations of the extract (3.125, 6.25, 12.5, 25, 50, and 100 μg/mL). Then, the residual infectivity of mixtures was measured on Vero cell monolayers. At 24 h p.i., viral infectivity was determined, evaluating the number of infected cells by immunofluorescence. The reduction of viral infectivity was expressed as a percentage of the positive control of infection (untreated, set at 100%). (c) Evaluation of HAZV internalization in Vero and SW13 cells infected at an MOI of 1 FFU/cell. Viral particles were subjected to PreT-V before the infection of precooled Vero and SW13 cells. After 4 h p.i., cells were collected, and the number of internalized HAZV virions was quantified by RT-qPCR and normalized on the control (untreated cells). The data show means ± SD of three independent experiments performed in triplicate. *** p < 0.001; **** p < 0.0001.