Abstract

Influenza epidemics cause numerous death and thousands of hospitalization each year. Because of the alarming emergence of resistant to anti-influenza drugs, there is a need to identify new anti-viral therapeutic agents. Viral tropism was stabilized in three mammalian celllines of different origin. The selected celllines are treated with sodium periodate at various concentrations to assess the rate of plaque reduction. Pretreated MDCK cells with sodium periodate at a concentration of 5 mM and 30% of plaque reduction was observed when compared to the untreated group. In A549 and Vero cells the plaque inhibition was found to be 11% and 22% respectively when compared with controls. The ability of influenza A virus (H3N2) binds to cells of canine, human and simian origin are reported here on the basis of cytopathic effect (CPE). H3N2 is more efficiently bound to cells of canine origin and the cytopathic effect was decreased with increasing the evolutionary complexity of the cell lines. The result suggested that dislodging of sialicacid receptors with sodium periodate were inhibiting the binding efficiency of human influenza A virus to mammalian cells.

Key words: Influenza A virus, sialicacid receptor protein, cytopathic effect, sodium periodate.