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Updated: Jun 22, 2026

Two Methods of Heterokaryon Formation to Discover HCV Restriction Factors
Published on: July 16, 2012
TAT peptides mediated small interfering RNA delivery to Huh-7 cells and efficiently inhibited hepatitis C virus RNA
Shuang Meng1, Baojun Wei, Ruihuan Xu
1National Center for Clinical Laboratories, Beijing Hospital, Beijing, PR China.
Objective:
To observe whether or not the small-interfering RNA (siRNA) that conjugated with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) TAT(47-57) peptides can enter Huh-7 cells and efficiently silence hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in cell culture.
Methods:
siRNA targeting the highly conserved stem loop IV of the HCV 5' untranslated region (5'UTR) was conjugated to TAT(47-57) peptides via the crosslinker sulfosuccinimidyl-4-(p-maleimidophenyl)-butyrate, and then the conjugates were added to the Huh-7 cell culture. Firefly luciferase activity and HCV RNA were assessed using a luciferase assay reagent and real-time reverse transcript polymerase chain reaction, respectively.
Results:
The expression of firefly luciferase in HCV replicons and the concentration of HCV RNA were downregulated by siRNA-TAT(47-57), and siRNA-TAT(47-57) mediated RNA interfering activity which was directly correlated with increasing concentrations of the siRNA-TAT(47-57) conjugate used.
Conclusion:
Cell-penetrating peptides such as HIV-1 TAT are an effective method for the delivery of siRNA targeted at 5'UTR of HCV in mammalian cells.
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