Merocyanine 540-sensitized photoinactivation of enveloped viruses in blood products: site and mechanism of phototoxicity

The amphipathic dye, merocyanine 540 (MC540), which preferentially photosensitizes enveloped viruses and virus-infected cells, is currently being evaluated in preclinical models as a blood sterilizing agent. In this communication, we report on an initial analysis of the site and nature of MC540-mediated photodynamic damages to human herpes simplex virus type 1 and human cytomegalovirus. The comigration of dye molecules and virions on a gel filtration column, the red-shift of the fluorescence emission spectrum of virus-containing fractions, and the distribution of MC540-treated virions in an aqueous two-phase partition system were indicative of MC540 binding to the enveloped viruses and localizing in a lipophilic environment (most likely the viral envelope). Fluorescence quenching and fluorescence resonance energy transfer experiments suggested that both dye monomers and dimers were capable of partitioning into the lipid bilayer of the viral envelope. Adsorption and penetration assays and immunohistochemical analyses of viral antigen expression showed that MC540-sensitized irradiation interfered with early phases of the infectious process, the adhesion to the host cell, the penetration of the host cell, and the translocation of the virus into the nucleus of the host cell. The inactivation of viruses was inhibited if oxygen in the medium was displaced by argon, enhanced if air was displaced by pure oxygen or if water was replaced by deuterium oxide. This suggested that the MC540-sensitized photoinactivation of enveloped viruses is an oxygen-dependent process and that singlet oxygen is one but not necessarily the only mediator of the antiviral effects of MC540.