Fig. 6

Repression of IL-17A pathway by TRAF6 inhibitor reversed the inhibitory effect of IL-17A on IFN-α-induced ISGF3 activation and anti-HBV activity. HepG2-HBV1.3 cells were pre-incubated with or without 5 uM or 20 uM TRAF6 inhibitor C25-140 for 6 h, then cells were cultured for another 24 h in this medium with or without supplementary 50 ng/ml IL-17A, and followed by co-treatment with or without 1000 IU/ml IFN-α for 24 h. A Culture supernatants were collected for assay of levels of HBsAg and HBeAg by ELISA. Data were displayed as a percentage of the values obtained for mock-treated cells. B Cell lysates were prepared for detection of protein expression by western blotting. Relative expression of protein was shown as fold-change in comparison with the cells treated with IFN-α alone. C Total cellular RNA was extracted for detection of mRNA expression of anti-HBV ISGs (ISG15 and MxA) by RT-qPCR. Relative expression of mRNA was shown as fold-change compared to the mock-treated cells. All data were shown as mean ± standard deviation (SD) (error bars) from at least 3 independent experiments. p < 0.05 is considered statistically significant. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 between two indicated groups