Fig. 6

Activity of r/si-ORF7 against VZV in 3D human epidermal skin model. A–C 3D human epidermal skin model was transfected with 10 nM of SSA (A) or r/si-ORF7 (B) delivered by flexible nano-liposomes 6 h before infection by VZV v-Oka at moi of 0.3 and incubated for 2 days. Examination of fixed and sectioned artificial skin tissue by H&E, and VZV gE expression was observed using a fluorescence microscope (C). gE was stained red and nuclei were labeled with DAPI (blue). Vacuolation and syncytium were marked by blue and black arrow respectively. Values are the mean ± S.D. of triplicated treatments; **P < 0.01 vs. SSA; Scale bar = 20 μm. D–F 3D human epidermal skin model was transfected with 10 nM of SSA (D) or r/si-ORF7 (E) delivered by flexible nano-liposomes 6 h before infection by VZV v-Oka at moi of 0.3 and incubated for 2 days. Examination of fixed and sectioned artificial skin tissue by H&E, and VZV gE expression was observed using a fluorescence microscope (F). gE was stained red and nuclei were labeled with DAPI (blue). Vacuolation and syncytium were marked by blue and black arrow respectively. Values are the mean ± S.D. of triplicated treatments; **P < 0.01 vs. SSA; Scale bar = 20 μm