Figure 7

Statins have no role or an anti-viral role in WNV-infected VERO, A549 cells and hNPCs. WNV-infected cells (MOI 10^–2) were treated with 10 µM fluvastatin, simvastatin, atorvastatin or lovastatin as shown in Figure 3A. Analysis was performed at 72 hpi (VERO) or 48 hpi (A549, hNPC). A, D, G Photomicrographs of WNV-infected VERO (A), A549 (D) and hNPCs (G) treated or not with statins. Cells were immunostained with anti-WNV-E3 antibody (red). Nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue). B, E, H Automated enumeration of total cell number based on DAPI staining and percentage of infected cells based on immunostaining with an anti-WNV-E3 antibody. Quantification of virus titers (C, F, I) in supernatants of VERO (C), A549 (F) and hNPCs (I). Results are representative of 3 independent experiments performed in quadruplicate (B, E, H) and are pooled from 2 independent experiments performed at least in duplicate (C, F, I). They are expressed as the mean ± SD. Comparison between treated and non-treated WNV-infected eNPCs was performed with a two-tailed unpaired Mann Whitney test with p-values significant when *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01. ns, non-significant (p > 0.05).