Proteasome inhibition reduces avian reovirus replication and apoptosis induction in cultured cells

The interplay between avian reovirus (ARV) replication and apoptosis and proteasome pathway was studied in cultured cells. It is shown that inhibition of the proteasome did not affect viral entry and host cell translation but had influence on ARV replication and ARV-induced apoptosis. Evidence is provided to demonstrate that ubiquitin-proteasome blocked ARV replication at an early step in viral life cycle. However, viral transcription and protein translation were also reduced markedly after addition of proteasome inhibitor MG132. Treatment of BHK-21 cells with the MG132 markedly decreased virus titer as well as prevented virus-induced apoptosis. The expression of ARV proteins σC, σA, and σNS was also reduced markedly, suggesting that suppression of virus replication is due to down-regulation of these ARV proteins by ubiquitin-proteasome system. MG132 was also shown to suppress ARV σC-induced phosphrylation of p53 on serine 46, caspase 3 activities, and DNA fragmentation leading to complete inhibition of ARV-induced apoptosis.