Abstract: Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection is a common viral disease. In view of the lack of effective vaccines against HCMV currently, the screening of antiviral drugs for treatment of HCMV are of great significance. In order to construct a rapid screening model of anti-cytomegalovirus drugs in vitro, in this study, a murine cytomegalovirus bacterial artificial chromosome with a luciferase tag (Luc-MCMV-BAC) was transfected into mouse fibroblast NIH-3T3 cells. The recombinant virus Luc-MCMV was successfully obtained, and it can stably emit light in cultured cells. The virus growth curves determined by the plaque method showed that Luc-MCMV displayed similar growth kinetics comparable to those of wild-type virus Wt-MCMV, indicating that Luc-MCMV can be used to screen drugs and evaluate the antiviral activity. Furthermore, using Ganciclovir as a positive control drug, six kinds of traditional Chinese medicine monomers were screened using this system. Results showed that Baicalein and Astragaloside IV had anti-MCMV activity, which laid the foundation for the screening of anti-HCMV drugs.
Key words: cytomegalovirus; recombinant virus; antiviral drug screening; luciferase; screening model
（Acta Laser Biology Sinica, 2021, 30(6): 526-532）