Blebbistatin as a novel antiviral agent targeting equid herpesvirus type 8

Liangliang Li; Xiu Cui; Yue Yu; Qi Sun; Wenjing Li; Yubao Li; Shuwen Li; Li Chen; Muhammad Zahoor Khan; Changfa Wang; Tongtong Wang

doi:10.3389/fvets.2024.1390304

Blebbistatin as a novel antiviral agent targeting equid herpesvirus type 8

Front Vet Sci. 2024 Jun 5:11:1390304. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1390304. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Liangliang Li^#¹, Xiu Cui^#¹, Yue Yu^#¹, Qi Sun¹, Wenjing Li¹, Yubao Li¹, Shuwen Li¹, Li Chen¹, Muhammad Zahoor Khan¹, Changfa Wang¹, Tongtong Wang¹

Affiliation

¹ College of Agronomy, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Introduction: Equid herpesvirus type 8 (EqHV-8) poses a significant threat to equine health, leading to miscarriages and respiratory diseases in horses and donkeys, and results in substantial economic losses in the donkey industry. Currently, there are no effective drugs or vaccines available for EqHV-8 infection control.

Methods: In this study, we investigated the in vitro and in vivo antiviral efficacy of Blebbistatin, a myosin II ATPase inhibitor, against EqHV-8.

Results: Our results demonstrated that Blebbistatin significantly inhibited EqHV-8 infection in Rabbit kidney (RK-13) and Madin-Darby Bovine Kidney (MDBK) cells in a concentration-dependent manner. Notably, Blebbistatin was found to disrupt EqHV-8 infection at the entry stage by modulating myosin II ATPase activity. Moreover, in vivo experiments revealed that Blebbistatin effectively reduced EqHV-8 replication and mitigated lung pathology in a mouse model.

Conclusion: Collectively, these findings suggest that Blebbistatin holds considerable potential as an antiviral agent for the control of EqHV-8 infection, presenting a novel approach to addressing this veterinary challenge.

Keywords: EqHV-8; animal model; antiviral activity; blebbistatin; myosin II ATPase inhibitor.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was funded by the Project of Shandong Province Higher Educational Science and Technology Program for Youth (2022KJ287), the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program for College Students (CXCY2022434, CXCY2023275 and S202310447042), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32002248), and the Shandong Province Modern Agricultural Technology System Donkey Industrial Innovation Team (SDAIT-27-18).