Abstract
Interferon-α (IFN-α) significantly reduced the replication of murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) in mouse embryo fibroblasts derived from the susceptible mouse strain C3H/HeJ. When infectious virus production was measured, a strong decrease in virus titer was observed in IFN-treated cells at a multiplicity of infection (moi) of 1 and 0.5 pfu/cell. Analysis of virus-specified mRNAs by Northern blot assay revealed that IFN-α had a significant effect on the expression of viral mRNAs at 48 h. In particular, the mRNAs of the major immediate early (IE) transcription units, IE1, IE2, and IE3, were impaired by IFN-α. In addition, decrease of IE1 mRNA synthesis was accompanied by a reduction of the major IE product (pp89), as revealed by Western blot assay. These results suggest that IFN-α may inhibit MCMV replication by directly impairing IE gene transcription.
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