Summary
Rat cytomegalovirus (RCMV) induces a cytosol thymidine kinase (TK) in G0-phase rat embryo fibroblasts (REF), but not in a TK deficient rat cell line (R-2), though virus titers in both cell types reached comparable levels. The results indicate that TK is neither virus-coded nor is required for a productive infection in R-2 cells. A deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) is induced in either growing or RCMV-infected REF and R-2 cells, suggesting that dCK is essential for both host-cell and viral DNA synthesis. A deoxy-guanosine kinase (dGK) is detectable in low concentrations in either growing or G0-phase REF and R-2 cells suggesting that this enzyme is cell-cycle independent. In contrast, RCMV induces high persisting levels of dGK, particularly in R-2 cells, indicating that this enzyme is of crucial importance for viral DNA synthesis. By comparison of thermostabilities and electrophoretic mobilities (Rf for TK, dCK and dGK were 0.12; 0.97; and 0.54, respectively) the enzymes were found to be substrate specific but of cellular origin. In contrast to TK and dCK, only dGK is inhibited by Acyclovir (Ki=320 µm). It is suggested that RCMV inducable dGK is an important enzyme determining thein vitro anti-CMV activity of Acyclovir.
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Meijer, H., Bruggeman, C.A., Dormans, P.H.J. et al. Rat cytomegalovirus induces cellular purine and pyrimidine nucleoside kinases in rat embryo fibroblasts and TK− rat-2 cells. Correlations with the antiviral activity of acyclovir. Archives of Virology 83, 181–194 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01309915
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01309915