Fig. 7

Demethylation restored the antiviral response to influenza virus in HBEC isolated from smokers. HBEC were treated with fresh 5 μM and 7.5 μM 5-Aza-2-deoxycytidine (5-Aza) each day for 3 days before IAV infection. After infection of the cells with IAV at an MOI of 1 for 24 h, total RNA was extracted and mRNA expression was assessed by qRT-PCR. Transcript levels of RIG-I (a), TLR3 (b), IRF7 (c), IP-10 (d), IFN-β (e), IFN-λ1 (f) and IFN-λ2/3 (g) were normalized relative to the constitutively expressed β-actin gene. Data were expressed as the means ± SEM from three separate experiments from different donors. * denotes significant difference compared to data from the IAV infected cells from nonsmokers (NS + IAV), P < 0.05. # denotes no significant difference compared to data from the IAV infected cells from nonsmokers (NS + IAV)