Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus induces extracellular Ca2+ influx, leading to apoptosis in avian cells.

ABSTRACT: In this study, we show that the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus (AIV) (A/crow/Kyoto/53/04 and A/chicken/Egypt/CL6/07) induced apoptosis in duck embryonic fibroblasts (DEF). In contrast, apoptosis was reduced among cells infected with low-pathogenic AIVs (A/duck/HK/342/78 [H5N2], A/duck/HK/820/80 [H5N3], A/wigeon/Osaka/1/01 [H7N7], and A/turkey/Wisconsin/1/66 [H9N2]). Thus, we investigated the molecular mechanisms of apoptosis induced by H5N1-AIV infection. Caspase-dependent and -independent pathways contributed to the cytopathic effects. We further showed that, in the induction of apoptosis, the hemagglutinin of H5N1-AIV played a major role and its cleavage sequence was not critical. We also observed outer membrane permeabilization and loss of the transmembrane potential of th

SUBMITTER: Ueda M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2826054 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature