Treatment of virus-induced myocardial injury with a novel immunomodulating agent, vesnarinone. Suppression of natural killer cell activity and tumor necrosis factor-alpha production.

Controversy still exists concerning the therapy for viral myocarditis which manifests a wide variety of clinical symptoms. Vesnarinone, a quinolinone derivative that was developed as a positive inotropic agent with complex actions, including phosphodiesterase inhibition and cation channel modification, has recently been confirmed to improve the prognosis of patients with chronic heart failure. However, the precise mechanism of this beneficial effect is not yet clearly understood. In this study, using a murine model of acute viral myocarditis resulting from encephalomyocarditis virus infection, survival and myocardial damage were markedly improved by treatment with vesnarinone. In contrast, survival was not improved by treatment with amrinone, a phosphodiesterase inhibitor. Although vesnarinone did not inhibit viral replication or protect myocytes from viral direct cell injury, it did inhibit the increase in natural killer cell activity after viral infection. On the other hand, amrinone failed to inhibit natural killer cell activity. Both vesnarinone and amrinone suppressed the production of tumor necrosis factor-alpha. Therefore, we postulate that vesnarinone exerted its beneficial effects through an inhibition of natural killer cell activity, and that it serves as an immunomodulator providing new therapeutic possibilities for the treatment of viral myocarditis and/or immunological disorders.