Figure 1: Scavenger receptor ligands inhibit HSV-1 infection of keratinocytes.

(a) HaCats were treated with 100 μg ml⁻¹ Poly(I:C), or 50 μg ml⁻¹ of Poly(I) or Poly(C) 20 min before the addition of HSV-1 at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 0.01. Cells were incubated for 5.5 h before quantification of HSV-1 messenger RNA by quantitative PCR (qPCR). (b) NHEK were treated with 10 μg ml⁻¹ Poly(I), Poly(C) and Poly(I:C) for 3 h before qPCR analysis of gene expression. (c) NHEK were treated with 10 μg ml⁻¹ of the indicated compounds for 20 min before the addition of HSV-1 at an MOI of 0.0005. Plaque forming units (PFU) were quantified 48 h after infection. (d) NHEK were treated with 10 μg ml⁻¹ Poly(I) or heparin 20 min before infection with WT HSV-1 at an MOI of 0.0005 or an equivalent amount of HSV-1 gCΔC5/P (HSV-1 possessing gC with a deletion of the heparin-binding domain, amino acids 33–123) viral particles. PFU were quantified 48 h after infection. PFU are displayed as relative % compared with untreated cells for each virus. NS, not significant. (a–d) all data are means±s.e.m, n=3 from representative experiments repeated at least two times. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey post-tests were used for statistical analysis, **P<0.01; ***P<0.001. (b, c) P-values were derived from comparisons to vehicle-treated samples.