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Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) causes a lytic infection in epithelial cells before being captured and moved via retrograde axonal transport to the nuclei of the sensory neurons of the trigeminal ganglion or dorsal root, where it establishes a latent infection. HSV-1 infection induces an antiviral response through the production of Beta Interferon (IFN-β) in infected trigeminal ganglia. The aim of this work was to characterize the response induced by IFN-β in neuron-enriched trigeminal ganglia primary cultures infected with HSV-1. An antiviral effect of IFN-β in these cultures was observed, including reduced viral production and increased cell survival. In contrast, viral infection significantly decreased both double stranded RNA dependent protein kinase (Pkr) transcription and Jak-1 and Stat-1 phosphorylation, suggesting a possible HSV-1 immune evasion mechanism in trigeminal cells. Additionally, HSV-1 infection upregulated Suppressor of Cytokine Signaling-3 (Socs3) mRNA; upregulation of socs3 was inhibited in IFN-β treated cultures. HSV-1 infection increased the number of Socs3 positive cells and modified the intracellular distribution of Socs3 protein, in infected cells. This neuron-enriched trigeminal ganglia culture model could be used to elucidate the HSV-1 viral cycle in sensory neurons and to study cellular antiviral responses and possible viral evasion mechanisms that underlie the choice between viral replication and latency.

PCR (polymerase chain reaction) is a routinely used tool in every diagnostic and research laboratory. This technique has been used in detection of mutations and pathogens, forensic investigation, and even is the base tool for human genome sequencing. A modification of PCR technique, real time PCR, allows the quantification of nucleic acids with higher sensibility, specificity and reproducibility. This article is intended to clarify the foundations of real-time PCR, using an application model for virology. In the actual work, it was quantified the viral load of dengue virus serotype 2 produced from infected murine macrophages; the obtained results in this work established that murine strain BALB/c presents a greater susceptibility to dengue virus infection, which establishes BALB/c murine strain as a best model of study for investigation of dengue virus infection physiopathology.

Infection with dengue virus presents a broad clinical spectrum, which can range from asymptomatic cases to severe cases that are characterised by haemorrhagic syndrome and/or shock. The reason for such variability remains unknown. This work evaluated thein vitropermissiveness of mouse, rat, hamster and guinea pig macrophages to infection by dengue virus 2 (DENV2). The results established that macrophages derived from the BALB/c mouse strain showed higher permissiveness to DENV2 infection than macrophages from other rodent species, although all rodent species studied had the C820T mutation in the oligoadenylate synthetase 1b gene, indicating no relationship to the differentin vitrosusceptibilities of mouse cells at this locus. Other molecular mechanisms related to flavivirus susceptibility remain to be explored.

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