"Huh7 cells were incubated for 6 h with DEN-1 sNS1 (10 ug/ml) or PBS, followed by 24 h or 48 h of chase (6 h/24 h and 6 h/48 h, respectively)."
This statement is from the paper titled "The Secreted Form of Dengue Virus Nonstructural Protein NS1 Is Endocytosed by Hepatocytes and Accumulates in Late Endosomes: Implications for Viral Infectivity". the paper mentions "chase" a couple of times but does not mention what it actually is.
My understanding is that it relates to the pulse-chase experiment somehow but I am not sure how that applies to the experiments or leads to the conclusions in the paper.
Hello Barsha Bhowal,
Yes, you are right. It relates to the pulse-chase experiment.
Cultured cells in vitro, Huh7 and HepG2, are incubated with DEN-1 sNS1 for 6 hours during which the cells are allowed to take up the protein for this brief time interval which is called "pulse" (6 hours). The cells are then returned to normal media for the time specified namely 24 hours and 48 hours, which is called "chase".
During this time (called chase), the protein may undergo various changes such as conformational change, trafficking inside, or it could also get degraded.
From the above paper, the investigators found that, after it's internalization, the protein was detected intracellularly for at least 48 hours without being substantially degraded.
Hope this explanation helps!
Best.
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