Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2021, Vol. 52 ›› Issue (2): 506-514.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2021.02.023

• BASIC VETERINARY MEDICINE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of Autophagy Regulators on Apoptosis in the Brain of Mice Infected with Japanese Encephalitis Virus

ZHANG Jinhua, GAO Mingxing, LIU Zelin, GU Changqin*   

  1. College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
  • Received:2020-08-06 Online:2021-02-23 Published:2021-02-24

Abstract: This experiment was conducted to study the effect of autophagy-regulating drugs on brain cell apoptosis in mice infected with Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV). An animal model was established by treating JEV infected mice with autophagy-regulating drugs. Rapamycin is an autophagy inducer, and wortmannin and chloroquine are autophagy inhibitors. The experimental animals were divided into 8 groups as follows: DMEM control group (Control); JEV infection group (JEV); JEV+rapamycin group (JEV+Rapa); JEV+Wortmannin group (JEV+Wort); JEV+chloroquine group (JEV+CQ); Rapamycin group (Rapa); Wortmannin group (Wort); Chloroquine group (CQ). The clinical symptoms and the degree of mitochondrial damage of neurons and glial cells in the brain of mice were observed. Besides, we examined the distribution of apoptotic cells in the brain of mice and detected the expression of apoptotic factors and apoptotic proteins in the brain of mice. Compared with the JEV+Rapa and JEV groups, the mice in the JEV+Wort and JEV+CQ groups showed mild neurological symptoms, and the mitochondria of neurons and glial cells were mildly damaged, and fewer cells showed apoptosis in the brain. There was no significant difference in the expression of apoptotic factors and apoptotic proteins in the brain of mice in different treatment groups. The results of this study suggested that autophagy inhibitors Wormantin and Chloroquine can partly inhibit the occurrence of apoptosis in the brain tissue of mice infected with JEV.

Key words: autophagy regulating drugs, Japanese encephalitis virus, mice, apoptosis

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