Effects of Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha on Sin Nombre Virus Infection In Vitro

Previous data indicate that immune mechanisms may be involved in developing capillary leakage during Sin Nombre virus (SNV) infection. Therefore, we investigated production of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) by human alveolar macrophages and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) after infection with SNV. In addition, we examined the effect of TNF-α on HUVEC monolayer leakage. Our results reveal that although TNF-α decreases accumulation of viral nucleoproteins, TNF-α levels do not change in SNV-infected cells. In addition, supernatants from SNV-infected human alveolar macrophages did not cause a significant increase in endothelial monolayer permeability.