Background: The Urabe AM9 vaccine strain of mumps virus contains two variants of V protein: VWT (of HN-A1081 viral population) and VGly (of HN-G1081). The V protein is a promoting factor of viral replication by blocking the IFN antiviral pathway.
Findings: We studied the relationship between V protein variants and IFN-α2b-induced apoptosis. V proteins decrease activation of the extrinsic IFN-α2b-induced apoptotic pathway monitored by the caspase 8 activity, being the effect greater with the VWT protein. Both V proteins decrease the activity of caspase 9 of the intrinsic apoptotic pathway. In a system without IFN, the VWT and VGly proteins expression promotes activation of caspases 3 and 7. However, when the cellular system was stimulated with IFN-α, this activity decreased partially. TUNEL assay shows that for treatment with IFN-α and ibuprofen of cervical adenocarcinoma cells there is nuclear DNA fragmentation but the V protein expression reduces this process.
Conclusions: The reduction in the levels of caspases and DNA fragmentation, suggesting that V protein, particularly VWT protein of Urabe AM9 vaccine strain, modulates apoptosis. In addition, the VWT protein shows a protective role for cell proliferation in the presence of antiproliferative signals.