Inhibition of autophagic flux in cells transfected with full-length HBV genomes.

<p>(A) Huh-7 cells were either starved or transfected with pUC19 empty vector (control), F1b wt, F1b BCPdm, F1b preCore, F4 wt, F4 BCPdm and F4 preCore variants. Forty-eight hours post-transfection, cells were treated with or without CQ (100 μM) for 2 hours, total cell proteins were extracted and cellular levels of p62 were assessed by Western Blot. (B) Relative intensity of the bands was quantified by normalization to β-actin, using ImageJ software. Shown values represent the mean ± standard deviation of three independent experiments. Statistically significant changes compared to control cells are indicated with asterisks above bars and statistically significant changes between the viral variants and starved cells are indicated with asterisks above brackets. * <i>p</i> < 0.05; ** <i>p</i> < 0.005 and *** <i>p</i> < 0.0001.