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J Gen Virol 74 (1993), 1519-1525; DOI 10.1099/0022-1317-74-8-1519
© 1993 Society for General Microbiology
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The effects of lithium and potassium on macromolecular synthesis in herpes simplex virus-infected cells

C. E. Hartley1, A. Buchan1, S. Randall1, G. R. B. Skinner1, M. Osborne2 and L. M. Tomkins2

1 Department of Infection
and2 Department of Physiology, The Medical School, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TJ, U.K.

All herpes simplex virus (HSV) infected cell-specific polypeptides (ICSPs) were synthesized in the presence of lithium at a concentration (60 mM) inhibitory to the production of infectious virus. Yields of certain ICSPs were increased and others, in particular glycoprotein C, decreased. HSV DNA synthesis was completely inhibited; synthesis and in vitro activities of HSV DNA polymerase and thymidine kinase were decreased but to a degree insufficient to account for the complete inhibition of HSV DNA synthesis. HSV DNA synthesis was inhibited to an equivalent degree by either incubation with 60 mM-lithium or by potassium starvation; both procedures decreased intracellular potassium by an equivalent amount as adjudged by X-ray microanalysis. We conclude that lithium inhibits HSV DNA synthesis by displacement of potassium from a potassium-dependent biochemical reaction or by other physiological changes brought about by the loss of cellular potassium. The possibility that lithium also directly inhibits a virus replicative event cannot be excluded.

Received 16 July 1992; accepted 5 April 1993.




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Copyright © 1993 by the Society for General Microbiology.