MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that can posttranscriptionally regulate gene expression by targeting messenger RNAs. During miRNA biogenesis, the star strand (miRNA*) is generally degraded to a low level in the cells. However, certain miRNA* express abundantly and can be recruited into the silencing complex to regulate gene expression. Most miRNAs function as suppressive regulators...

Viral myocarditis is an important cause of heart failure and dilated cardiomyopathy. T lymphocytes are implicated in myocardial damage in murine models of coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) myocarditis. We used knockout mice lacking CD4 (CD4), CD8 (CD8), both coreceptors (CD4CD8), or the T-cell receptor b chain (TCRb) to address the contribution of T-cell subpopulations to host susceptibility to CVB3 myo...

The 3A protein of the coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3), an enterovirus that belongs to the family of the picornaviruses, inhibits endoplasmic reticulum-to-Golgi transport. Recently, we elucidated the underlying mechanism by showing that CVB3 3A interferes with ADP-ribosylation factor 1 (Arf1)-dependent COP-I recruitment to membranes by binding and inhibiting the function of GBF1, a guanine nucleotide e...

T cells expressing the Vgamma4 T-cell receptor (TCR) promote myocarditis in coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3)-infected BALB/c mice. CD1, a major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I-like molecule, is required for activation of Vgamma4(+) cells. Once activated, Vgamma4(+) cells initiate myocarditis through gamma interferon (IFN-gamma)-mediated induction of CD4(+) T helper type 1 (Th1) cells in the in...

The myocarditic (H3) variant of Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) causes severe myocarditis in BALB/c mice and BALB/c mice lacking the invariant J alpha 281 gene, but minimal disease in BALB/c CD1d(-/-) animals. This indicates that CD1d expression is important in this disease but does not involve the invariant NKT cell often associated with CD1d-restricted immunity. The H3 variant of the virus increases...

Stress granules (SGs) are dynamic cytosolic aggregates containing messenger ribonucleoproteins and target poly-adenylated (A)-mRNA. A key component of SGs is Ras-GAP SH3 domain binding protein-1 (G3BP1), which in part mediates protein-protein and protein-RNA interactions. SGs are modulated during infection by several viruses, however, the function and significance of this process remains poorly...

Endomyocardial fibrosis (EMF) is a restrictive cardiomyopathy of unknown etiology. It is mainly prevalent in the tropical and subtropical countries. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) for EMF, and detect the relationship between Coxsackie virus B3 (CVB3) and EMF in the Chinese patients. The right ventricular EMB was performed in 18 patients...

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 relation between mycarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is controversial. To clarify the pathogenic mechanism of these diseases, the present study examined the effect of repetitive inoculation with coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) in post-myocarditic mice. Inbred 3-week-old A/J mice were inoculated intraperitoneally with CVB3 (Nancy strain; 2x10(4) plaque-forming units) and reinfected in the s...

Viral protein-1 (VP1) is a major capsid protein of Coxsakievirus B3 (CVB3) that plays an important role in directing viruses towards permissive cells and acts as a main antigenic site of the virus in eliciting of host immune response, hence it seems VP1 can be considered as a vaccine candidate against CVB3 infection. In this study, cDNA of VP1 was prepared, cloned into pET expression vector and...