Functional foods effective for hepatitis C: Identification of oligomeric proanthocyanidin and its action mechanism

Figure 4 Identification strategy of candidate proteins involved in the proanthocyanidin-mediated inhibition of hepatitis C virus subgenomic expression[13]. Total proteins were extracted from hepatitis C virus (HCV) replicon cells and then proanthocyanidin-binding and catechin-binding proteins were purified by affinity chromatography using sepharose beads coupled with proanthocyanidin and catechin, respectively. Purified proteins were separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis followed by detecting spots of proteins having higher affinity to proanthocyanidin than catechin (arrows). Mass spectrometric analysis and further screening by a siRNA-based replicon assay showed that hnRNP A2/B1, A/B, K, and L are candidate proteins involved in the oligomeric proanthocyanidin-mediated inhibition of HCV subgenomic expression. hnRNP: Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein.