Fig. 3: The role of NEU1 inhibition via shRNA in intracellular signaling pathways and EMT in HBc-positive hepatoma cells.

a The role of NEU1 in sialidase activity in hepatoma cells. b The role of NEU1 in activation of ERK and P65 and in the expression of IkBα in hepatoma cells. c The role of NEU1 in the expression of nuclear P65 in hepatoma cells. d The effect of NEU1 on morphological change in hepatoma cells (×400). e The effect of NEU1 on the expression of EMT markers in hepatoma cells. f The effect of NEU1 inhibition mediated by shRNA on the expression of NEU1 protein in HBc-positive hepatoma cells. g The effect of inhibition of NEU1 expression induced by shRNA on sialidase activity mediated by HBc in hepatoma cells. h The effect of inhibition of NEU1 expression mediated by shRNA on activation of the ERK pathway in hepatoma cells stably transfected with HBc. i The effect of inhibition of NEU1 expression mediated by shRNA on P65 activation in HBc-positive hepatoma cells. j The effect of inhibition of NEU1 expression mediated by shRNA on IkBα expression in HBc-positive hepatoma cells. k The effect of inhibition of NEU1 expression mediated by shRNA on P65 expression in the nucleus in HBc-positive hepatoma cells. l The effect of NEU1 inhibition mediated by shRNA on morphological changes in HBc-positive hepatoma cells (×400). m The effect of NEU1 inhibition mediated by shRNA on EMT markers in hepatoma cells mediated by HBc. Mock: cells transfected with control plasmid. HBc: cells transfected with HBc plasmid. HBc-shCON: HBc-positive cells treated with shRNA control plasmids. HBc-shNEU1: HBc-positive cells treated with shRNA plasmids targeting NEU1. *P < 0.05. The red arrow shows the changes in hepatoma cells that developed a spindle-like morphology.