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Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Evaluation of Caspase Activation to Assess Innate Immune Cell Death
Published on: January 20, 2023
Apoptosis induction in BEFV-infected Vero and MDBK cells through Src-dependent JNK activation regulates caspase-3 and
Chun-Yen Chen1, Chin-Yang Chang, Hung-Jen Liu
1Graduate Institute and Department of Life Science, Tzu-Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Abstract:
Our previous report demonstrated that bovine ephemeral fever virus (BEFV)-infected cultured cells could induce caspase-dependent apoptosis. This study aims to further elucidate how BEFV activates the caspase cascade in bovine cells. BEFV replicated and induced apoptosis in Vero and Madin-Darby bovine kidney (MDBK) cells, and a kinetic study showed a higher efficiency of replication and a greater apoptosis induction ability of BEFV in Vero cells. Src and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) inhibitor, but not extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) or p38 inhibitor, alleviated BEFV-mediated cytopathic effect and apoptosis. In BEFV-infected Vero and MDBK cells, BEFV directly induced Src tyrosine-418 phosphorylation and JNK phosphorylation and kinase activity, which was inhibited specifically by SU6656 and SP600125, respectively. The caspase cascade and its downstream effectors, Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) and DFF45, were also activated simultaneously upon BEFV infection. In addition, cytochrome c, but not Smac/DIABLO, was released gradually from mitochondria after BEFV infection. SU6656 suppressed Src, JNK, and caspase-3 and -9 activation, as well as PARP and DFF45 cleavage; SP600125 reduced JNK and caspase-3 and -9 activation, as well as PARP and DFF45 cleavage. Taken together, these results strongly support the hypothesis that a Src-dependent JNK signaling pathway plays a key role in BEFV-induced apoptosis. The molecular mechanism identified in our study may provide useful information for the treatment of BEFV.
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