Effects of Insect Hormones on the Replication of Nucleopolyhedrovirus

An experimental study was undertaken to quantify the effects of insect hormones on the replication of nucleopolyhedrovirus (NPV). The results demonstrated that TCID/ sub 50/ at 72 h post-infection (hpi) rose systematically from 0.55$\times$10$^{8}$ /m1, for untreated cells, up to 1.67$\times$10$^{8}$ / ml at 3$\mu$g/ml, then dropped down to 1.45$\times$10$^{8}$ /m1 at 4 $\mu$g/ml, by adding ecdysone to the culture medium for Bm-N cells infected with a wild-type Bambyx mori. nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV). The optimum enhancement of about 3 times on budded virus (BV) titer at 72 hpi was given at 3 $\mu$g/ml of ecdysone. While the polyhedra number had no obvious variation within the range of concentrations from 0 to 4 $\mu$g/ml. By addition of juvenile hormone analogue (JHA) into the media with this concentration range, the BmNPV TCID/ sub 50/ and polyhedra number at 72 hpi did not show significant changes. Also, the addition of either 3 $\mu$g/ml of ecdysone or 3 $\mu$g/ml of JHA to the culture media did not appear to affect the TCID/ sub 50/ and polyhedra number significantly in infected Sf-21 cells with the autographa californica nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV).