Abstract: AIM: To determine the effect of proteasome inhibitor MG-132 in mice with acute viral myocarditis induced by coxsackievirus B3 virus (CVB3) infection. METHODS: BALB/C mice were intraperitoneally inoculated with CVB3 to induce myocarditis. From 24 h after infection, MG-132 was administered at a dose of 0.75 mg/kg for 7 d continuously by intraperitoneal injection. Normal controls were treated with same volume of PBS. Then, the myocardial histopathological changes, HW/BW ratio, expression of myocardial CVB3 mRNA and serum cTnⅠ and BNP were determined. RESULTS: MG-132 significantly attenuated myocardial lesions and decreased HW/BW ratio. It also remarkably decreased serum cTnⅠ and BNP, down-regulated CVB3 mRNA expression compared with myocarditis controls. CONCLUSION: MG-132 protects against CVB3 induced viralmyocarditis in mice. MG-132 exerts its beneficial effect by downregulating CVB3 mRNA expression probably.

Key words: Ubiquitin-proteasome system, MG-132, Mice, Viralmyocarditis, Virus replication