Screening of a Library of FDA-Approved Drugs Identifies Several Enterovirus Replication Inhibitors That Target Viral Protein 2C.

Enteroviruses (EVs) represent many important pathogens of humans. Unfortunately, no antiviral compounds currently exist to treat infections with these viruses. We screened the Prestwick Chemical Library, a library of approved drugs, for inhibitors of coxsackievirus B3, identified pirlindole as a potent novel inhibitor, and confirmed the inhibitory action of dibucaine, zuclopenthixol, fluoxetine, and formoterol.

Constant up-regulation of BiP/GRP78 expression prevents virus-induced apoptosis in BHK-21 cells with Japanese encephalitis virus persistent infection.

Background: Persistent infection of the Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV) has been reported in clinical cases, experimental animals, and various cell culture systems. We previously reported the establishment of spontaneous JEV persistent infection, assisted by defective interfering particle accumulation and/or attenuated helper viruses, in BHK-21 cells devoid of virus-induced apoptosis, cBS6-2 and cBS6-3. However, cell-specific factors may play important roles in controlling JEV replication and have never been assessed for this specific phenomenon.

Extended stability of cyclin D1 contributes to limited cell cycle arrest at G1-phase in BHK-21 cells with Japanese encephalitis virus persistent infection.

There is increasing evidence that many RNA viruses manipulate cell cycle control to achieve favorable cellular environments for their efficient replication during infection. Although virus-induced G0/G1 arrest often delays early apoptosis temporarily, a prolonged replication of the infected virus leads host cells to eventual death. In contrast, most mammalian cells with RNA virus persistent infection often escape cytolysis in the presence of productive viral replication.

Reliability of non-culturable virus monitoring by PCR-based detection methods in environmental waters containing various concentrations of target RNA.

Owing to the lack of practical cell culture system for human noroviruses (HuNoV), various detection methods based on conventional reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) and the quantitative real-time PCR have been major tools for monitoring environmental water safety. In this study, we showed that the proportion of water sample concentrates used for one-step RT-PCR significantly influences false-negative findings of the non-culturable viruses. In total, 59 archived samples of previously analyzed water concentrates were reexamined for HuNoV RNA by the one-step RT-PCR and semi-nested PCR.