Correlation of arginine metabolism with neurodegenerative diseases in infected cells with herpes simplex virus-1

Arginine is a semiessential amino acid in human. Metabolism of arginine in human plays a key role in the production of proline, polyamines, urea, creatine, glutamate, ornithine, citrulline, agmatine and nitric oxide. Metabolism of this amino acid changes in neurodegenerative diseases. Association between herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) infection and the probability of developing neurodegenerative diseases in humans has been proven, but the association between the molecular mechanism of HSV-1 infected cells and increased risk of these diseases has not been determined. Human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK 293) cells were cultured and checked for mycoplasma bacterial infection with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique, then the cells were divided into two groups. One group of cells became infected with multiplicity of infections 1 and 5 (MOIs 1 and 5) HSV-1 and the other group considered as a control. After 6.5 h, the cells were collected and RNA extracted, then cDNA synthesized, and changes in mRNA expression of key arginine metabolism enzymes genes were investigated with real-time PCR and data were analyzed by using REST 2009 (Corbett Research, United Kingdom) software. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of the arginine metabolism pathway key enzymes in HEK 293 cells infected with HSV-1 and the interaction probability with neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, it has been shown that most of the key enzymes involved in arginine metabolism in HEK 293-infected cells with HSV-1 has changed in MOIs 1 and 5. These changes are great along with changes in neurodegenerative diseases. Change in arginine metabolism key enzymes mRNA expression after infection with HSV-1 can reflect one of the most important mechanisms of HSV-1 involvement in neurodegenerative diseases.