Fig. 3

Evaluation of anti-HBV efficacy of rTALEs following murine hydrodynamic injection of plasmids encoding the repressors. a Serum concentrations of HBsAg were measured in samples collected at days 3 and 5 after injection of the plasmids. Cassettes encoding the rTALEs contained either the CMV or MTTR promoters. Controls were carried out using a plasmid that contained an irrelevant sequence (Mock, pTZ57R). b Circulating viral particle equivalents (VPEs) in the serum that was collected at day 5 after the hydrodynamic injection. c Concentrations of RNA containing HBV core and surface sequences, isolated from liver cells at the termination of the experiment on day 5 were measured using reverse transcriptase quantitative PCR (RT qPCR). Data are presented relative to the concentrations of the murine GAPDH housekeeping gene. Each mock group comprised 4 animals and the rTALE-treated groups included 5 mice. Data are represented as the means and the error bars indicate the standard errors of the mean (±SEM). Statistically significant differences, relative to the mock-treated animals, are indicated by asterisks (*: p < 0.05, **: p < 0.01 and ***: p < 0.001). d Serum alanine transaminase (ALT) activity was determined at day 5 after hydrodynamic injection of mice with CMV SPL or CMV SPR plasmids or pTZ57R (Mock). Uninjected animals were also included as an additional control. The upper limit of normal, 100 IU/ml, is indicated by the dashed line on the graph