Fig. 1

Knockdown of IFI16 in EBV latency I Akata cells results in lytic cycle induction. a Immunoblot showing the efficient knockdown of IFI16 in Akata cells at 48 h post siRNA transfection. b & e Real-time qRT-PCR of IFI16 mRNA levels 48 h after transfection of siRNA (b) or IFI16 overexpression (e). mRNA levels were normalized against β–tubulin and expressed as relative amounts compared to siC (control) treatments. c & f Real-time DNA PCR of relative EBV genome abundance. Primers specific to the latent EBNA1 gene were used and the level of DNA was normalized against β-tubulin levels. d & g Real-time qRT-PCR for gene-specific primers for the four major classes of EBV genes (immediate early, early, late, and latent) 48 h after siRNA transfection (d) or IFI16 overexpression and TPA treatment (g). mRNA levels were normalized against β-tubulin mRNA levels and data are expressed as the relative amount as compared to the siC treatments. Results are represented as means ± SD of data from three independent experiments and statistical analysis was done with a Student’s t test. **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001