Department of Virology, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan. yonggang @ biken.osaka-u.ac.jp
Intervirology. 2013;56(1):6-12. doi: 10.1159/000339985. Epub 2012 Aug 16.
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an alphavirus belonging to the Togaviridae family. Alphaviruses cause a chronic non-cytopathic infection in mosquito cells, while they develop a highly cytopathic infection in cells originating from various vertebrates. In this study, we compared the cytopathic effect (CPE) induced by CHIKV in Vero cells and a mosquito cell line, C6/36 cells.
CPE and the virus titers were compared between the CHIKV-infected C6/36 and Vero cells. Apoptosis was measured by TUNEL assay, and the differences between the C6/36 and Vero cells were compared.
CHIKV infection induced strong CPE and apoptosis in the Vero cells, but light CPE in the C6/36 cells. The virus titers produced in the C6/36 cells were much higher than those produced in the Vero cells.
The reason CHIKV induced strong CPE is that this virus triggers strong apoptosis in Vero cells compared with C6/36 cells. CHIKV established a persistent infection in C6/36 cells after being passaged 20 times. CHIKV infection in mosquito cells was distinct from that in Vero cells. The cell and species specificity of CHIKV-induced cell death implies that the cellular and viral regulators involved in apoptosis may play an important role in determining the outcome of CHIKV infection.
基孔肯雅病毒（CHIKV）属于披膜病毒科的甲病毒。甲病毒在蚊子细胞中引起慢性非细胞病变感染，而在源自各种脊椎动物的细胞中则引起高度细胞病变感染。在本研究中，我们比较了 CHIKV 在 Vero 细胞和一种蚊子细胞系 C6/36 细胞中引起的细胞病变效应（CPE）。
比较了 CHIKV 感染的 C6/36 和 Vero 细胞之间的 CPE 和病毒滴度。通过 TUNEL 测定法测量细胞凋亡，并比较 C6/36 和 Vero 细胞之间的差异。
CHIKV 感染在 Vero 细胞中诱导强烈的 CPE 和细胞凋亡，但在 C6/36 细胞中仅诱导轻微的 CPE。在 C6/36 细胞中产生的病毒滴度远高于在 Vero 细胞中产生的病毒滴度。
CHIKV 诱导强烈 CPE 的原因是与 C6/36 细胞相比，该病毒在 Vero 细胞中触发强烈的细胞凋亡。CHIKV 在 C6/36 细胞中经过 20 次传代后建立了持续性感染。CHIKV 在蚊子细胞中的感染与在 Vero 细胞中的感染明显不同。CHIKV 诱导的细胞死亡的细胞和物种特异性表明，参与细胞凋亡的细胞和病毒调节因子可能在确定 CHIKV 感染的结果方面发挥重要作用。
