We assessed two strains of mice [CD-1 and C3H.HeJ (C3H)] with different responses to coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) infection at 7, 14, and 21 days after inoculation with 105 pfu of CVB3. CD-1 mice developed inflammatory lesions at 7 days that nearly recovered by 21 days; C3H mice demonstrated persistence of infiltrates. Although there were differences in the baseline fractional shortening, it was fu...

Viral myocarditis (VMC) most prevalently caused by coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) infection is characterized by severe cardiac inflammation. Therapeutic options for the disease are still limited. Astragaloside IV (AST-IV), a purified small molecular saponin (C41 H68 O14 , MW 784), is the main active component of Chinese medical herb Astragalus which has been empirically prescribed for the treatment o...

The transcription factor signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is an important mediator of the inflammatory process. We investigated the role of STAT3 in viral myocarditis and its possible role in the development to dilated cardiomyopathy. We used STAT3-deficent mice with a cardiomyocyte-restricted knockout and induced a viral myocarditis using Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) whic...

Amiloride and its derivative 5-(N-ethyl-N-isopropyl)amiloride (EIPA) were previously shown to inhibit coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) RNA replication in cell culture, with two amino acid substitutions in the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase 3D(pol) conferring partial resistance of CVB3 to these compounds (D. N. Harrison, E. V. Gazina, D. F. Purcell, D. A. Anderson, and S. Petrou, J. Virol. 82:1465-1...

TBZE-029 {1-(2,6-difluorophenyl)-6-trifluoromethyl-1H,3H-thiazolo[3,4-a]benzimidazole} is a novel selective inhibitor of the replication of several enteroviruses. We show that TBZE-029 exerts its antiviral activity through inhibition of viral RNA replication, without affecting polyprotein processing. To identify the viral target of TBZE-029, drug-resistant coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) was selected....

Several oxidative stressors (dietary selenium deficiency, dietary vitamin E deficiency coupled with fish oil feeding, genetic reduction of glutathione peroxidase activity) allow a normally benign coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3/0) to damage heart muscle in host mice. This study investigated whether dietary iron overload, another oxidant stress, would also permit CVB3/0 to exert a cardiopathologic effec...

BACKGROUND Myeloid differentiation factor (MyD)-88 is a key adaptor protein that plays a major role in the innate immune pathway. How MyD88 may regulate host response in inflammatory heart disease is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS We found that the cardiac protein level of MyD88 was significantly increased in the hearts of wild-type mice after exposure to Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3). MyD88(-/-) mi...

3C protease of Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) plays an essential role in the viral replication cycle, and therefore, emerged as an attractive therapeutic target for the treatment of human diseases caused by CVB3 infection. In this study, we report the first account of the molecular impact of the T68A/N126Y double mutant (Mutant(Bound)) using an integrated computational approach. Molecular dynamics si...

AIMS To evaluate the role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in the pathogenesis of Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3)-induced viral myocarditis. METHODS We detected miRNA expression profiling by microarray utilizing a mouse model on day 4 after CVB3 infection. Then we validated differentially expressed miRNAs using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We predicted target genes using miRNA target prediction d...