Potential mechanisms of zinc sulfate in inhibiting porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus replication: attenuation of oxidative stress, inflammatory response, and apoptosis

Zinc, the second most abundant essential trace element in living organisms, can effectively inhibit RNA viral infections. Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is a single-stranded RNA virus. It is still unknown whether zinc can suppress PRRSV replication and what its mechanism of action is. In this study, PRRSV-infected Marc-145 cell model was employed to systematically investigate zinc sulfate's anti-PRRSV mechanisms through integrated multi-omics approaches, including transcriptomics, real-time quantitative PCR, immunoblot, and flow cytometry.