Dear friends:

I am confused about my experiments that have a significant difference between mock control and negative control(scramble).I used lentivirus to infect NK-92 cells, followed by a two-day screening with 10 μg/mL puromycin. After one week, I assessed mRNA expression using RT-qPCR. However, I observed that the gene expression in the mock control, which underwent no treatment, is lower than that in the negative control, which shares the same nucleotide composition as the test siRNA but differs in sequence.

Given this situation, I am questioning the reliability of my experimental results. Additionally, I am curious whether this discrepancy could be attributed to viral infection or other factors. I would appreciate any insights on how to address this issue.

Thank you very much for your patience.