Figure 5.

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)–induced caspase 3 activation in T cells occurs rapidly upon infection and is not inhibited by UV inactivation of the virus. A, T cells and Vero E6 cells were infected with MERS-CoV at 2 50% tissue culture infective doses (TCID₅₀) per cell. Cells were fixed at the indicated time points and immunolabeled for detection of MERS-CoV nucleoprotein (NP) and active caspase 3. B, T cells and Vero E6 cells were infected with MERS-CoV at 2 TCID₅₀ per cell. In parallel, equal volumes of UV-inactivated MERS-CoV were applied to Vero E6 cells and T cells. At 24 hours after infection, cells were harvested, fixed, and immunolabeled for detection of MERS-CoV NP and active caspase 3. The illustrated result was a representative of 2 independent experiments that showed similar results.