Sensitive Procedure for Detecting Residual Viable Virus in Inactivated Rabies Vaccine

A procedure for testing inactivated rabies vaccines of tissue culture origin for residual viable virus is reported in which the vaccine to be tested is passed in primary hamster kidney cell culture (PHK) before mouse inoculation. In preliminary experiments, titrations of rabies virus in which each dilution was passed in PHK before inoculating mice yielded titers 100 to 10,000 times higher than the titers obtained for the same virus by direct mouse inoculation. This rabies virus amplification procedure was evaluated by testing 18 lots of inactivated rabies vaccine of tissue culture origin. No viable virus was found in these vaccine lots when tested by direct intracerebral inoculation of mice. Eight of these 18 lots were found to contain viable virus, however, when tested by passage in PHK cell culture. The significance of low levels of viable virus in rabies vaccines is discussed. It is recommended that the amplification procedure described in this report be used in the safety testing of rabies vaccines of tissue culture origin and that it be evaluated for use in testing other rabies vaccines of low tissue content.     

ELECTRON MICROSCOPY OF STRUCTURAL DETAIL IN FROZEN BIOLOGICAL SPECIMENS

A procedure is described whereby preshadowed replicas can be obtained from frozen biological specimens which have been cut and then etched by sublimation of the ice from their surfaces. Electron micrographs showing details of the internal structure of plant virus crystals are presented to demonstrate the values of the procedure. Crystals of purified tobacco ringspot virus and squash mosaic virus and some portions of turnip yellow mosaic virus crystals have been shown to exhibit hexagonal packing. Sections through in situ crystals of tobacco mosaic virus show the rods to be parallel within each layer and arranged in a square net as viewed end on. Individual rods in each layer of the latter measure 300 mµ in length and are somewhat tilted with respect to the rods of adjacent layers. This results in the formation of a herring-bone appearance when a crystal is cut perpendicular to its hexagonal face. It is suggested that the procedure outlined here might well serve to supplement other procedures for the preparation of many cytological specimens for electron microscopy.     

猪口蹄疫病毒与猪肠道病毒在细胞培养中的基因重组——病毒重组及一个重组株的初步鉴定

利用两株不同理化和生物学特性的不同属小RNA病毒,即口蹄疫病毒(FMDV)与猪肠道病毒(EV),建立了病毒基因重组,克隆筛选和鉴定的方法,初步证实,在实验室条件下它们可以进行基因重组,本文为研究自然界病毒变异机理,不同属病毒的基因重组提供了依据。     

Adaptation of Plaque Assay Methods to the in Vitro Quantitation of the Radiation Leukemia Virus

A modification of the XC cell procedure for murine leukemia virus assay which yields quantitative data over a wide range of virus concentrations is described. By using serial passage of infected cell cultures and reversal of the plating sequence in the XC procedure, titers of radiation leukemia virus (RadLV) were obtained which were about 10-fold higher than those found by using the conventional assay. By using the modified procedure, it was observed that, even at high multiplicities of infection, less than 10% of the cells function as infective centers, although the proportion increases with serial passage. It was also observed that exposure of infected cells to UV light, which is commonly used to make plaques more visible in the conventional XC cell test, inhibits plaque formation in the RadLV system. Substitution of X irradiation for UV exposure improved plaque visibility without loss of sensitivity.     

Rapid Detection of Viral Antibody by Cellulose Acetate Electrophoresis

An immunoelectrophoretic procedure utilizing microprecipitation and cellulose acetate electrophoresis was developed for detection of antibody to specific virus. A model system of tobacco mosaic virus and homologous rabbit antiserum is described.     

Simple preparation of parapoxvirus genome DNA for endonuclease analysis

We compared five methods for improved extraction of very-large parapoxvirus DNA from infected cells: (i) alkaline-lysis procedure followed by phenol extraction; (ii) modified Hirt procedure, which was a neutral lysis procedure followed by phenol extraction; (iii) Hirt procedure; (iv) method used for extraction of vaccinia virus DNA; and (v) standard procedure using virus purification with an ultracentrifuge and protease-sodium dodecyl sulfate-phenol treatment. The alkaline-lysis procedure was more rapid, inexpensive and simpler than the other methods. Moreover, with this method it is not necessary to prepare any special facilities, reagents and kits. Although the extracted DNA was still crude, we could reproducibly prepare viral DNA from 2 X 10(6) infected cells in less than 2 hr and it could be readily digested by restriction endonuclease. This method will aid rapid genetic classification of parapoxvirus.     

Transcription of 70S RNA by DNA polymerases from mammalian RNA viruses.

DNA polymerases purified by the same procedure from four mammalian RNA viruses, simian sarcoma virus type 1, gibbon ape lymphoma virus, Mason-Pfizer monkey virus, and Rauscher murine leukemia virus are capable of transcribing heteropolymeric regions of viral 70S RNA without any other primer. In this reconstituted system the enzymes from simian sarcoma virus type 1, Mason-Pfizer monkey virus, and Rauscher murine leukemia virus transcribe viral 70S RNA almost as efficiently as the DNA polymerase from the avian myeloblastosis virus, but gibbon ape lymphoma virus DNA polymerase is approximately three-to fivefold less efficient. Although there is a substantial difference among the sizes of these DNA polymerases (160,000 daltons for the avian myeloblastosis virus enzyme, 110,000 daltons for the Mason-Pfizer monkey virus enzyme, and 70,000 daltons for the mammalian type C viral polymerases), the ability to transcribe viral 70S RNA is a characteristic common to these enzymes.     

Use of trypsin for rapid and efficient purification of murine sarcoma and leukemia virus.

A method is described for purification of MSV-MuLV from culture supernatant of chronically infected 78A,1 rat embryo cell line. This method involves direct polyethylene glycol-NaCl precipitation of the low speed supernatant of culture fluid followed by digestion of the pellet with trypsin. This procedure efficiently disrupts large aggregates which normally entrap most of the virus. Highly purified virus can be obtained in very good yield by a combination of sedimentation velocity and isopycnic centrifugation : yields up to 100 A280 units (17 mg of protein) of purified virus per liter of culture fluid can be observed. This procedure appears well suited for large scale isolation of virion associated enzymatic activities.     

Isolation of viral double-stranded RNAs using a LiCl fractionation procedure

A general procedure for the isolation of virus-specific double-stranded RNA (ds-RNA) is discribed. The procedure is based on the differential solubility of different types of nucleic acids in LiCl. Principal advantages over conventional methods are simplicity, avoidance of enzymatic treatment, and relatively good yields of undegraded ds-RNA while permitting separation of several main groups of cellular and viral nucleic acids from the same batch of tissue. The method has been successfully applied in tissues infected by several representative plant RNA viruses. The virus-specific ds-RNAs obtained have been identified by their resistance to ribonuclease and comparison of their electrophoretic mobilities with those of the corresponding single-stranded RNA (ss-RNA) in polyacrylamide gels. The molecular weights of the ds-RNAs of tobacco mosaic virus, turnip yellow mosaic virus, alfalfa mosaic virus, and peanut stunt virus fit the curved log molecular weight-migration relationship constructed from a set of known marker ds-RNAs.     

Purification of the Kilham Rat Virus

A purification procedure is described for the isolation of Kilham rat virus (RV) from infected suckling hamster kidney and liver suspensions. The procedure involved a combination of sonic treatment, differential centrifugation, butanol-chloroform extraction, agar column flow diffusion, and potassium tartrate density gradient centrifugation. The purified virus retained its infectivity and was specifically neutralized by RV hyperimmune antiserum. Electron micrographs from the RV band (density 1.31 g/ml) showed numerous homogeneous particles approximately 22 mmu in diameter.     

Immunohistochemical localization of barley stripe mosaic virions in infected wheat cells

Barley stripe mosaic virus particles were localized in ultrathin sections with colloidal gold-labeled specific IgG or antiserum followed by gold-labeled goat anti-rabbit IgG. On the average, 1.5 gold particles were attached per virus rod. A statistical analysis of counts of gold and virus particles showed that the staining procedure was highly reproducible from experiment to experiment and after several independently prepared colloidal gold solutions. The procedure should be useful for the intracellular localization of any protein to which an antibody can be prepared.     

Use of trypsin for rapid and efficient purification of murine sarcoma and leukemia virus

A method is described for purification of MSV-MuLV from culture supernatant of chronically infected 78A₁ rat embryo cell line. This method involves direct polyethylene glycol-NaCl precipitation of the low speed supernatant of culture fluid followed by digestion of the pellet with trypsin. This procedure efficiently disrupts large aggregates which normally entrap most of the virus. Highly purified virus can be obtained in very good yield by a combination of sedimentation velocity and isopycnic centrifugation : yields up to 100 A₂₈₀ units (17 mg of protein) of purified virus per liter of culture fluid can be observed. This procedure appears well suited for large scale isolation of virion associated enzymatic activities.     

A simplified method for the production of recombinant baculovirus

A simplified method for producing recombinant baculovirus for expression of foreign genes is described. The method utilizes insect cells infected with the wild-type virus before transfection with the plasmid transfer vector, instead of the standard procedure utilizing cotransfection with a plasmid and viral DNA. Recombinant virus is preselected by a limiting dilution dot-blot hybridization procedure, rather than by morphologic criteria alone. In addition, we have found that plasmid purification by anion-exchange chromatography is as efficacious for transfection as plasmid purified by cesium chloride density gradient centrifugation. These modifications allows for an efficient, rapid, inexpensive and more objective protocol for the selection of recombinant baculovirus compared to the conventional protocol.     

Hemagglutination-Inhibition Method and Immunofluorescence Staining with Venezuelan Equine Encephalomyelitis Virus

Hemagglutination and fluorescent antibody (FA) are compared for the direct detection of virus devoid of host cells. A determination was made of the minimal number of tissue plaque-forming units of Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis virus that could be detected by the hemagglutination technique. Similar concentrations of the virus in bovine albumin borate saline, Brain Heart Infusion broth (Difco), and demineralized water were tested by the FA technique. Somewhat higher concentrations of the virus in bovine albumin borate saline were used in the hemagglutination-inhibition test. The quantitative hemagglutination procedure employed for these studies was carried out at 37 C for 75 min with variations in concentration of goose red cells. As a result of lowering the red cell concentration, smaller concentrations of virus were detected. The direct FA staining procedure applied to slide preparations containing known numbers of tissue culture plaque-forming units of virus was negative. Adsorbed viral antigen on agglutinated goose erythrocytes was visualized by direct and indirect FA techniques.     

Detection of human papilloma virus DNA sequences by polymerase chain reaction

We have developed a polymerase chain reaction-based procedure for reproducible detection of the E6-E7 gene in human papilloma virus DNA sequences using formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue sections. This procedure is a simple one-step procedure which does not require any elaborate hybridization following polymerase chain reaction amplification. The protocol combines modified tissue treatment and proper primer selection for efficient amplification of target DNA in a highly specific manner allowing identification in ethidium bromide-stained gels. The procedure described here is useful for a variety of tissue preparations, particularly formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded archival tissues.