Background: Zika virus is an emerging arbovirus of global importance. ZIKV infection is associated with a range of neurological complications such as the Congenital Zika Syndrome and Guillain Barré Syndrome. Despite the magnitude of recent outbreaks, there is no specific therapy to prevent or to alleviate disease pathology.

Objective: To investigate the role of P-MAPA immunomodulator in Zika-infected THP-1 cells.

Methods: THP-1 cells were subjected to Zika virus infection (Multiplicity of Infection = 0.5) followed by treatment with P-MAPA for until 96 hours post-infection. After that, the cell death was analyzed by annexin⁺/ PI⁺ and caspase 3/ 7⁺ staining by flow cytometry. In addition, virus replication and cell proliferation were accessed by RT-qPCR and Ki67 staining, respectively.

Results: We demonstrate that P-MAPA in vitro treatment significantly reduces Zika virus-induced cell death and caspase-3/7 activation on THP-1 infected cells, albeit it has no role in virus replication and cell proliferation.

Conclusion: Our study reveals that P-MAPA seems to be a satisfactory alternative to inhibit the effects of Zika virus infection in mammalian cells.

背景：寨卡病毒是一种新兴的具有全球重要性的虫媒病毒。ZIKV感染与一系列神经系统并发症有关，例如先天性寨卡综合征和格林巴利综合征。尽管最近爆发的疫情严重，但没有预防或减轻疾病病理的特定疗法。

目的：研究P-MAPA免疫调节剂在寨卡病毒感染的THP-1细胞中的作用。

方法：对THP-1细胞进行寨卡病毒感染（感染复数= 0.5），然后用P-MAPA处理直至感染后96小时。此后，通过流式细胞术通过膜联蛋白⁺ / PI ⁺和半胱天冬酶3/7 ⁺染色分析细胞死亡。此外，病毒复制和细胞增殖分别通过RT-qPCR和Ki67染色获得。

结果：我们证明，P-MAPA的体外治疗显着减少Zika病毒诱导的细胞死亡和THP-1感染细胞上的caspase-3 / 7活化，尽管它在病毒复制和细胞增殖中没有作用。

结论：我们的研究表明，P-MAPA似乎是抑制寨卡病毒感染哺乳动物细胞的令人满意的替代方法。