Knock down of ezrin by siRNA increases entry of SARS-CoV S pseudotyped particles.

<p>A. Ezrin expression knock down by siRNA. HeLa-F5 cells stably expressing the SARS-CoV receptor ACE2 were transfected twice with ezrin or non-targeting siRNAs and knock down efficiency was estimated by Western blot analysis of ezrin and actin content of cell lysates. B. Luciferase activity fold change analysis. HeLa-F5 cells treated with siRNAs as indicated above were infected with pseudotyped lentiviral particles harboring the VSV G or SARS-CoV S viral envelope glycoproteins. Δenvpp indicates lentiviral particles without any viral surface glycoprotein. The fold change in luciferase activity was calculated using the non-targeting siRNA condition as negative control. Experiments were performed in triplicates and the results of this experiment are representative of at least three independent experiments. ** indicates a value of <i>p</i><0.001 in two-tailed t-tests.