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. 2022 Apr 21;17(4):e0257408. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257408

Fig 5. ZIKV infection triggered the intrinsic apoptosis in ZIKV-infected macrophages.

Fig 5

(A) PMA-differentiated THP-1 macrophages, infected with 0.1 MOI of ZIKV for 24 hrs before staining with antibodies for ZIKV E and cleaved caspase-3 and subjected to confocal immunofluorescence. The infected cells positive with ZIKV E and cleaved caspase-3 were shown (arrow). The cells were treated with 10 μM of apoptosis activator 2 for 2 hrs as a positive control for apoptosis. (B & C) Activation of caspase-9 in ZIKV-infected macrophages. Cell lysates were prepared from ZIKV-infected THP-1 cells for assay of caspase-8 (B) and caspase-9 (C) enzymatic activities. The cells were treated with either 20 ng/mL of TNF-α for 24 hrs or 10 μg/mL of Ginsenoside Rh2 for 36 hrs as positive controls for activities of caspase-8 or caspase-9. The experiments were performed in triplicates and the data were shown as mean+SD, analyzed by unpaired Students t-test. **, P<0.01; ***, P<0.001. ns, no significance.