Selenium supplementation decreases coxsackievirus heart disease during murine AIDS

Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) induces myocarditis, especially in the immunodeficient or immature. To investigate whether CVB3 induced pronounced cardiomyopathy during the severe immune dysfunction of murine acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), female C57BL/6 mice were infected with LP-BM5 retrovirus and then coinfected with CVB3. C57BL/6 mice, essentially resistant to CVB3-induced cardiomyopathy, became susceptible to this cardiomyopathy because of the immune dysfunction caused by murine AIDS. This susceptibility suggests that retrovirus infection causes conditions favoring the CVB3 induction of cardiac lesions. Mice were fed a diet supplemented with selenium (Se) at nine times the recommended daily dose for mice (0.933 mg/ kg of diet). Heart tissues were analyzed histopathologically 12 d after CVB3 challenge. Mice experiencing concurrent retrovirus and CVB3 infection had a high degree of cardiac lesions that were consistent with myopathy compared to that in uninfected mice (p < 0.05). Se supplementation during murine retrovirus infection significantly diminished the pathogenesis caused by concurrent CVB3 infection in mice that had murine AIDS. There was a significant increase in the survival of dually retrovirus and CVB3-infected mice that were fed Se, compared to that of identically treated mice that were not fed Se. Hepatic lipid peroxides were significantly diminished in the Se-supplemented mice as compared to those in immunodeficient mice without supplementation (p