Buthionine Sulfoximine Inhibits Cytopathic Effects and Apoptosis Induced by Infection with AIK-HDC Strain of Measles Virus.

Measles virus (MV) is a highly contagious agent which causes a major health problem in developing countries. We studied the effect of buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) on the replication of an AIK-HDC strain of MV and its induced apoptosis in Vero cell lines. In this study, toxicity of BSO on Vero cells was investigated first, resulted in determination of sub-lethal or non-toxic concentration zone of BSO for cells. Next, anti-viral effect of BSO at various time limits was evaluated and virus titer was determined at each stage either as 50% tissue culture infective dose (TCID)50 or by plaque assay method. Using specific anti-measles IgG, anti-viral effect of BSO on MV replication cycle was evaluated through indirect immunofluorescence assay, meanwhile presence of viral RNA was investigated by RT-PCR and gel electrophoresis. According to the experiments, BSO, at concentration of 50 μM, markedly inhibited the cytopathic effect (CPE) induced by MV. BSO also significantly inhibited apoptosis induced by MV. BSO either influences replication of MV genome, or may inhibit virion formation. These results suggest that the inhibition of CPE and apoptosis by BSO induced by MV may be associated with the effect of BSO on viral RNA genome. Therefore, it is suggested that MV infections can induce apoptosis through the activation of a common pathway that can be inhibited by BSO Iran. Biomed. J. 11 (4): 229-235, 2007.