Antiviral effects of geranylgeranylacetone: enhancement of MxA expression and phosphorylation of PKR during influenza virus infection.

A cyclic polyisoprenoid compound, geranylgeranylacetone (GGA), has been used as antiulcer drug. GGA is also a potent inducer of heat shock proteins (HSPs). HSPs are considered to induce an antiviral effect; however, the detailed mechanism is unknown. To determine whether GGA might show antiviral activity and what the mechanism is, the effect of GGA against influenza virus (strain PR8) infection in vivo and in vitro was investigated. The results demonstrated that GGA treatment strongly suppressed the deleterious consequences of PR8 replication and was accompanied by an increase in HSP70 gene expression in mice. Results from in vitro analyses demonstrated that GGA significantly inhibited the synthesis of PR8-associated proteins and prominently enhanced expression of human myxovirus resistance 1 (MxA) followed by increased HSP70 transcription. Moreover, GGA augmented the expression of an interferon-inducible double-strand RNA-activated protein kinase (PKR) gene and promoted PKR autophosphorylation and concomitantly alpha subunit of eukaryotic initiation factor 2 phosphorylation during PR8 infection. It is proposed that GGA-induced HSP70 has potent antiviral activity by enhancement of antiviral factors and can clinically achieve protection from influenza virus infection.