Early signal transduction in measles virus-infected lymphocytes is unaltered, but second messengers activate virus replication.

In order to understand measles virus-lymphocyte interactions, we have started to analyze factors and events which regulate measles virus infection in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). We analyzed the initiation of cell proliferation, induced by phytohemagglutinin, in infected and control PBMC by measuring intracellular free Ca2+ by using fura-2. Measles virus-infected and control PBMC responded similarly with an increase in the amount of cytosolic free Ca2+, indicating that the early activation events are not affected and are not involved in immunosuppression. The activation signals, Ca2+ and protein kinase C, induced specifically and independently by Ca ionophore A23187 or 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), changed the restricted measles virus infection to a productive one. The combination of TPA and A23187 was the most potent activator of measles virus replication. TPA and A23187 operate through different activation mechanisms, and it is evident that measles virus replication depends on the activation of cellular signal pathways. Depletion of adherent cells enhanced virus replication, especially at the early stage of infection, indicating the inhibitory role of monocytes. Monocytes were strongly infected, but they supported complete measles virus replication only at a very low level, and virus replication could not be enhanced with TPA and/or A23187.