Research Of Cell Apoptosis Induced By Coxsackievirus A16Infection

Coxsackievirus A16(CA16) is one of the main causative pathogens of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). Viral replication typically results in hostcell apoptosis. Although CA16infection has been reported to induce apoptosisin the human rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) cell line, it remains unclear whether CA16induces apoptosis in diverse cell types, especially neural cells which have important clinical significance. In the current study, CA16infection was found to induce similar apoptotic responses in both neural cells and non-neural cells in vitro, including nuclear fragmentation, DNA fragmentation and phosphatidylserine translocation. CA16generally is not known to lead to serious neurologicalsymptoms in vivo. In order to further clarify the correlation between clinicalsymptoms and cell apoptosis, two CA16strains from patients with different clinical features were investigated. The results showed that both CA16strains with or without neurological symptoms in infected patients led to neural and muscle cell apoptosis. Furthermore, mechanistic studies showed that CA16infectioninduced apoptosis through the same mechanism in both neural and non-neuralcells, namely via activation of both the mitochondrial (intrinsic) pathway-related caspase9protein and the Fas death receptor (extrinsic) pathway-related caspase8protein. Understanding the mechanisms by which CA16infection inducesapoptosis in both neural and non-neural cells will facilitate a better understanding of CA16pathogenesis.