Fig. 2

Iron treatment increases viral titers in Culex cells.

Culex cells were infected with WNV (MOI of 1) with/without iron (FAC, 100 uM) treatment. As a control, uninfected cells were used. Total RNA and supernatant medium were collected at 48 hpi. Real-time RT-qPCR was performed using Culex ferritin (heavy chain) (a) and NRAMP (b) primers. RpL32 primers were used as an internal control. Error bars represent standard errors from means of three separate experiments with assays performed in triplicate (Student’s t-test *p < 0.05, comparing with control untreated cells). c Viral titer estimation by plaque assays conducted on the supernatant media collected from cells treated as in (a). (Student’s t-test *p < 0.05, comparing with control infected cells)