As a control, polyclonal antibody to actin (Santa Cruz Biotechnology) was used. After washing with TBS-T, the membranes were respectively incubated with secondary antibody of goat antimouse (for HCV core or NS3),

goat antirat (for hA3G or HA), or goat antirabbit (for actin) (ZSGB-BIO, China) at room temperature for 1 hour. Protein signal was detected using Immobilon Western Chemiluminescent HRP Substrate (Millipore) with Alpha Innotech Focus and Image Acquisition (Alpha Innotech). Density scanning was done for semiquantification. The Huh7.5 cells at a density of 3 × 104 cells/cm2 were seeded into 24-well plates with a 13-mm diameter coverslip. After 6 hours incubation, cells were infected with HCV viral stock (45 IU per cell) and simultaneously treated with

RN-5 or IMB-26. The Sirolimus cells were incubated for another 96 hours JQ1 cost and then washed twice with ice-cold phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), fixed in paraformaldehyde for 10 minutes, and permeabilized with PBS containing 0.25% Triton X-100 for 5 minutes. Cells were next blocked in TBS containing 5% bovine serum albumin (BSA)/0.1% Tween-20, followed by an overnight treatment with anti-hA3G and anti-HCV core antibodies at 4°C. After 3 washes in TBS with 0.1% Tween-20, cells were probed with goat antirat Cy3 (Beyotime) and goat antimouse Dylight488 (Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories, West Grove, PA) at room temperature for 1 hour. Then the slides were washed 3 times. Cell nuclei were counterstained with Hoechst 33342 (Beyotime) for

5 minutes at room temperature. Slides were mounted with antifade mounting medium and visualized using a Leica TCS SP2 laser scanning spectral confocal microscope. CEM-SS cells that are null of endogenous expression of hA3G was used as negative control. Male and female Kunming mice (4 weeks, weight 18 ± 1.0 g) were purchased from the Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (Beijing, China). They were fed with regular rodent chow and housed in an air-conditioned room. The mice were randomly divided into five groups with 10 mice each (five male plus five female). RN-5 was given once intraperitoneally (0, 62.5, 125, 250, or 500 mg/kg) or orally (0, 125, 250, 500, or 1,000 mg/kg). Body weight as well as survival was monitored. Blood samples were taken for liver and kidney function click here examination after 7 days treatment. The 0.3% carboxymethylcellulose sodium was used as solvent for oral administration and 0.9% saline with 3% Tween-80 was for intraperitoneal injection. We first examined whether addition of external hA3G would reduce HCV replication in the Huh7.5 cells. To introduce hA3G, HCV-infected Huh7.5 cells were transfected with hA3G expression vectors fusing HA tag at the C-terminus.16 As shown in Fig. 1A, with a dose-dependent increase of the expression of external hA3G-HA or total intracellular hA3G in the HCV-infected Huh7.5 cells, the intracellular HCV replication decreased.