Studies On The Effect Of Ten Drugs On Pseudorabies Virus Infection

Pseudorabies virus (PrV) is the causative agent of pseudorabies (PR). PrV can infect most mammals and several avian species. Since PrV was identified, it has spread worldly, resulting in enormous economic loss in husbandry industry At present, the prevention of PR mainly depends on vaccination. There are very limited literatures available regarding anti-PrV drugs. In recent years, it has been reported several drugs could treat PR; nevertheless, their effects are not significant. The mechanism of the anti-virus drugs is poorly understood. Therefore, it is very urgent to screen economical and effective anti-PrV drugs.In this paper, we established cell culture-based platform to screen effective anti-PrV drugs in vitro. Totally, ten anti-virus drugs were identified using plaque-reduction assays and PCR analysis. The results showed that, lithium chloride, ganciclovir and foscarnet cannot only inactivate PrV directly, but also inhibit PrV propagation in cells; glycyrrhizic acid diamine, Houttuynia, Shanghuanglian have the sole anti-PrV ability. While polyinsinic, ribavirin, Astragalus and Banlangen is not valid for prevention of PrV infection. Based on the vitro test, the anti-PrV drugs screened have been confirmed in vivo using mouse model. The subsequent results are consistent with the results in vitro. At the same time, the effect of the drugs on cell apoptosis induced by PrV was investigated. Our results indicate that lithium chloride, ganciclovir, foscarnet, glycyrrhizic acid diamine, Shuanghuanglian inhibiting PrV-induced cell apoptosis. In contrast, Houttuynia cannot decrease the number of apoptotic cells, although it can inhibit PrV infection.Several effective anti-PrV infection drugs and their action mechanism have been identified in the current study. Moreover, our data is useful for further elucidation of PrV infection mechanisms and development of anti-PrV drugs.