Selenomethionine Inhibited RSV Infection-Induced Apoptosis and Inflammatory Response through ROS-Mediated Signaling Pathway

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading pathogen of acute lower respiratory tract infections in children under 5 years of age worldwide. Respiratory syncytial virus pneumonia in infants and children causes more deaths than influenza each year due to the high rate of severe illness. There is a lack of safe and effective antiviral drugs, and the development of novel antirespiratory syncytial virus drugs is of great clinical importance. Selenomethionine (SeMet), as the main ingredient in commercially available selenium supplements, exerts excellent antioxidant, antiviral, immunomodulatory, and other physiological functions mainly in the form of selenoprotein. The antiviral mechanism of SeMet anti-RSV was explored by detecting the apoptotic state, the degree of DNA damage, cytokine and reactive oxygen species (ROS) secretion levels, and the mitochondrial membrane potential. Meanwhile, this study screened the affinity of SeMet for common RSV target proteins and explored the dynamic interactions between SeMet and the screened viral target proteins.<i>Conclusions</i>: SeMet inhibited apoptosis and inflammatory responses by regulating the ROS-mediated PARP/Bcl-2, NF-κB/JAK1-STAT3 signaling pathways. Meanwhile, SeMet formed a stable interaction with RSV polymerase and may bind to key amino acid residues of RSV polymerase mainly through hydrogen bonding.