BACKGROUND Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), which is suggested to play a role in defending the organism against oxidative stress-mediated injuries, can be induced by diverse factors including viruses and iron. As coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3)-infected SWR/J mice susceptible for chronic myocarditis were found to have a significant iron incorporation and HO-1 upregulation in the myocardium, we aimed to invest...

RIG-I-like receptors (RLRs) MDA5 and RIG-I are key players in the innate antiviral response. Upon recognition of viral RNA, they interact with MAVS, eventually inducing type I interferon production. The interferon induction pathway is commonly targeted by viruses. How enteroviruses suppress interferon production is incompletely understood. MDA5 has been suggested to undergo caspaseand proteasom...

BACKGROUND Common causative agents in the development of inflammatory cardiomyopathy include cardiotropic viruses such as coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3). Here, we investigated the role of the ubiquitin-like modifier interferon-stimulated gene of 15 kDa (ISG15) in the pathogenesis of viral cardiomyopathy. METHODS AND RESULTS In CVB3-infected mice, the absence of protein modification with ISG15 was a...

Abstract: Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) is the most common agent known to cause viral myocarditis. The viral genome encodes a single polyprotein that is cleaved to produce several proteins by virally encoded proteases. Most of this proteolytic processing is catalyzed by a cysteine protease called 3C. The 3C protease plays major role in viral replication and cellular damage. To understand the mecha...

Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3), a member of the picornavirus family and enterovirus genus, causes viral myocarditis, aseptic meningitis, and pancreatitis in humans. We genetically engineered a unique molecular marker, "fluorescent timer" protein, within our infectious CVB3 clone and isolated a high-titer recombinant viral stock (Timer-CVB3) following transfection in HeLa cells. "Fluorescent timer" pr...

Cardiomyocytes are quite resistant to gene transfer using standard techniques. We developed an expression vector carrying an attenuated but infectious and replicative coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) genome, and unique ClaI-StuI cloning sites for an exogenous gene, whose product can be released from the nascent viral polyprotein by 2A(pro) cleavage. This vector was tested as an expression vehicle for g...

Evidence has accumulated that T cell-mediated autoimmunity plays an important role in the pathogenesis of viral myocarditis. T lymphocytes are known to recognize antigen-presenting cells, such as virus-infected cells, being restricted by syngeneic major histocompatibility complex (MHC) antigens. To clarify in more detail the immunological mechanisms involved, we induced acute viral myocarditis ...

Protease 2A (2Apro) of coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) plays a major role in viral replication. In case of infection, viral proteins are being synthesized from viral mRNA using host biosynthesis machinery. 2Apro of virus, after being synthesized, exhibits two critical functions, cleavage of viral proteins and breaking eukaryotic initiation factor 4G. The enzyme plays an essential role in viral replic...

Previous research has proven that coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) is broadly considered virus used in the experimental model of animals, which causes myocarditis humans. To investigate whether there exists a cardio-protective effect crocetin an murine acute viral (AVM). Male BALB/c mice were randomly assigned to three groups: control, treated with placebo and (n = 40 animals per group). Myocarditis wa...

the ds-rna activated protein kinase (pkr) is a serine-threonine kinase with mw of 68 kda. it belongs to a family of kinases that control one of the translational initiation factors, eif2. pkr is produced at high level in response to viral infection. this protein by phosphorylating eif2 inhibits cellular protein synthesis. in this study, the effect of gamma interferon (ifn-γ), an activator, and ...