Characteristics of enterovirus 71-induced cell death and genome scanning to identify viral genes involved in virus-induced cell apoptosis

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Enterovirus 71 (EV71) causes hand-foot-and-mouth disease and severe neural complications in infants and young children. Viral pathogenesis is associated with virus-induced cell death and inflammatory cytokine production, which is usually correlated with the type of programmed cell death. EV71-infected cells were analyzed through microscopy, cell staining, and immunoblotting to determine the characteristics of EV71-induced cell death. Results demonstrated that EV71 infection induced cell shrinkage, nuclear condensation, decreased mitochondrial potential, and membrane phosphatidylserine translocation. Caspase-9 activation, poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage, and lactate dehydrogenase release were also observed during virus-induced cell death. The activated gasdermin D (GSDMD) and the phosphorylated mixed lineage kinase domain-like protein (p-MLKL) were not detected. These observations indicated that EV71-induced cell death was mainly executed by apoptosis through the intrinsic pathway rather than by GSDMD-mediated pyroptosis and p-MLKL-mediated necroptosis. Genome scanning analysis identified that EV71 2A, 2B, and 3C might be the determinant genes of virus-induced cell death. Further experiments showed that EV71 2A- and 3C-induced cell death exhibited dependence on their protease activities but involved different mechanisms. EV71 2A-induced cell death was correlated with the shut-off of host cap-dependent translation, whereas EV71 3C-induced cell death might not be ascribed to this mechanism. These findings would enhance our understanding of EV71 infection and viral pathogenesis, and help identify antiviral targets.