Fig. 9: PJ34 relieves N protein-induced pneumonia.

See also Supplementary Fig. 9. a, b Lysates from A549-N cells treated with or without PJ34 (50 µM) for 2 h were subjected to immunoprecipitation using an anti-N protein antibody and then to RT-qPCR (a) and immunoblotting (b) to detect pre-miRNAs and proteins associated with N protein. c Immunoblotting of the indicated proteins in A549-Ctrl or A549-N cells after treatment with different concentrations of PJ34 for 2 h. d Immunoblotting of the indicated proteins in A549-Ctrl or A549-N cells (left) or A549-hACE2 cells infected with SARS-CoV-2 or mock (right) in the presence or absence of PJ34. e, f K18-hACE2 mice were intranasally infected with SARS-CoV-2 or mock-infected and treated with or without PJ34; lung tissues were subjected to immunoblotting with the indicated antibodies (e) and HE staining to assess lung injury (f). Representative immunoblots of lung tissues from three out of five mice per group are shown (e). g Mice (8-week-old and 18-month-old) were intranasally instilled with control plasmid or N protein-expressing plasmid and treated with or without PJ34; lung tissues were subjected to HE staining to assess lung injury. The numbers below the blots (b–e) indicate the relative densitometric quantification of the bands normalized to corresponding GAPDH bands. The mean values of three independent experiments are shown in (b–d). Data in (a) are expressed as mean ± SD of three independent replicates. Data in (f, g) are expressed as mean ± SD of five mice. **p < 0.01; ns not significant (p > 0.05; two-tailed unpaired Student’s t-test). anti-N anti-N protein antibody, Ctrl control plasmid, N N protein. Source data and exact p values are provided in the Source Data file.