The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7187 p274-79
2 March 2002

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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) (www.pnas.org)

Role for COX-2 in viral infection?

Anti-inflammatory drugs might be useful for treating human cytomegalovirus infection, researchers say. Dr Hua Zhu, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, and colleagues found that levels of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) dramatically increased in fibroblast cells after they were infected with cytomegalovirus.

When the cells were then treated with a COX-2 inhibitor, virus production was reduced by a factor of greater than 100. This was the case for three specific experimental COX-2 inhibitors and a non-specific inhibitor (indometacin). Viral replication could be restored by adding prostaglandin E₂ to the cell culture, suggesting that the COX-2 inhibitor's action is through blocking production of this prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂). The researchers comment that the finding suggests that "the induction of COX-2 and synthesis of PGE₂ are essential for efficient human cytomegalovirus replication in human fibroblasts".

They conclude that COX-2 inhibitors might be useful in preventing progression of infection although comment that they used relatively high concentrations of the inhibitors in the study. They add that COX-2 inhibitors might be useful in combination with other anti-viral drugs that block viral replication through other mechanisms.

The study is available at www.pnas.org and is expected to be published in the 26 February edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Human cytomegalovirus rarely causes problems in healthy adults but infection during pregnancy can cause birth defects.