FIG 3.

Viral kinase inhibition reduces spread but does not improve Ca²⁺ function in infected cells. (A) NPC-derived neurons and astrocytes were mock infected or infected using HCMV TB40/E-eGFP at 0.5 IU/cell and treated with DMSO vehicle control (+vehicle) or 10 μM maribavir (+MBV). Representative bright-field and fluorescent images were taken at 14 dpi. (B) The mean GFP fluorescence signal for infected samples treated with vehicle or MBV. (C) Intracellular Ca²⁺ levels were measured at 14 dpi with HCMV-infected cells separated into GFP-positive (G+) and -negative (G−) populations. Intracellular Ca²⁺ levels were measured prior to ATP stimulation (left panel), and the total number of cells responding to 10 μM ATP stimulation (middle panel) and the percent Ca²⁺ response over baseline are shown (right panel). V, vehicle. (D) Stimulation using 50 μM KCl as described in panel C. (E) The time to respond to ATP stimulation (left panel) or recover from ATP (right panel) across the treatment groups. (F) The time to respond to KCl (left panel) or recover from KCl (right panel). These data were collected from four biological replicate experiments with 100 cells analyzed in each replicate. (*, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001; ns, not significant, as determined by ANOVA or chi-square test).