Effect of statins on mCMV growth in vitro and in vivo.

(A) NIH/3T3 cells were infected with mCMV-GFP (MOI of 0.2) and subsequently treated with varying concentrations of Simvastatin or Gancyclovir immediately after infection. GFP expression was measured to monitor the level of infection (Materials and Methods). Graph represents the percentage of viral inhibition as a function of drug treatment. Data points represent mean ± SD of two independent experiments with six biological replicates for each experiment. (B) Mice were fed with simvastatin (50 mg/kg/mice) daily for 5 d by gavages and at day 1 post-treatment, were challenged with 2×106 PFU of mCMV by intraperitoneal injection, and sacrificed; at 4 dpi, viral titers in different organs were measured by plaque assay and are expressed per gram of tissue. Data points represent mean ± SD of two independent experiments with five mice per group for each experiment. *ppp