SENP7 is indispensable for the innate defense against HSV-1 infection.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Immunoblot analysis of SENP7 in lysates of liver, kidney and spleen from mice at 48 hr after transfection with <i>Senp7</i> or nonspecific (N.C.) shRNA. (<b>B</b>) Survival of mice (n = 9 per group) transfected with <i>Senp7</i> or N.C. shRNA and 48 hr later injected intravenously with HSV-1. P = 0.0014 (Mantel-Cox test). (<b>C</b>) ELISA of IFN-β and IFN-α4 in serum from mice (n = 5 per group) transfected with <i>Senp7</i> or N.C. shRNA and 48 hr later injected intravenously with HSV-1, assessed 6 hr after HSV-1 infection. (<b>D</b>) Quantitative PCR of relative <i>Ifn-b</i>, <i>Ifn-a4</i> and <i>Cxcl10</i> mRNA in livers from mice (n = 5 per group) transfected with <i>Senp7</i> or N.C. shRNA and 48 hr later injected intravenously with HSV-1, assessed 6 hr after HSV-1 injection. (<b>E, F</b>) Brains of the HSV-1-infected mice (n = 6 each) were harvested for immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis by an anti-HSV-1 antibody. Tissue sections were visualized by microscopy (<b>E</b>). Percentages of cells infected by HSV-1 were quantified (<b>F</b>). (<b>G, H</b>) Quantitative PCR of relative <i>Ifn-b</i> mRNA in spleen (<b>G</b>) or kindey (<b>H</b>) from mice (n = 5 per group) transfected with <i>Senp7</i> or N.C. shRNA and 48 hr later injected intravenously with HSV-1, assessed 6 hr after HSV-1 injection. Graphs show the mean ± s.d. and data shown are representative of at least two experiments. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 (two-tailed t-test). Scale bars, 50 μm.