Sodium tanshinone IIA sulfonate affects Marek’s disease virus replication by inhibiting gB expression

Abstract

Context: Previous studies demonstrated that sodium tanshinone IIA sulfonate (STS) could inhibit MDV replication in vitro. The mechanism about how STS inhibits MDV replication is still not well understood.Objective: In this study, we evaluated the effect of STS on gB gene/protein of Marek’s disease virus (MDV).Materials and methods: The concentration of 0.25 mg/ml of STS was used in this study. Meanwhile, 0.25 mg/ml of acyclovir (ACV) was used as a positive control. About 9–11-d-old embryonated specific-pathogen-free (SPF) chicken eggs were used to prepare CEF cells. CEF cells were infected with MDV 2 h, followed by treatment with STS. Real-time PCR and western blot assay were used to measure the gB (UL27) gene/protein expression in STS treatment group at 24, 48, 72, and 96 h post-infection.Results: Compared with MDV control, the gB gene copies were significantly decreased in STS and ACV treatment groups at 72 h and 96 h (p < 0.05), both in the DNA and in the mRNA level. Furthermore, the expression of gB protein was also inhibited by STS at 24, 72, and 96 h.Discussion and conclusion: Our study demonstrated that STS could effectively inhibit the MDV replication by suppressing gB gene/protein expression in cell culture.