Billie L. Padgett

Human papovavirus (JC): induction of brain tumors in hamsters.

Eighty-three percent of hamsters inoculated at birth with JC virus, a human papovavirus isolated from brain tissue of a case of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, developed malignant gliomas within 6 months. Three brain tumors have been serially transplanted as subcutaneous tumors. JC virus was isolated from five of seven tumors tested. Cells from four tumors were cultivated in vitro. These cells contained an intranuclear antigen with the characteristics of a T antigen, and this antigen was antigenically related to SV40 T antigen. Although virus was not recovered from extracts of serially cultured tumor cells, JC virus was rescued when one tumor cell line was fused with permissive cells.

Tubulo-Interstitial Nephritis Associated with Polyomavirus (BK Type) Infection

We studied viral injury to the kidney in a six-year-old boy with hyperimmunoglobulin M immunodeficiency who presented with irreversible acute renal failure and eventually died after five months of dialysis. Renal biopsy at the time of his presentation revealed a predominantly tubulo-interstitial process with numerous viral inclusions that were identified as polyomavirus. Urine cultures showed a massive viruria with BK-type, polyomavirus. The kidney disease was end stage, with persistence of BK virus identified by morphologic techniques and by culture. DNA hybridization analysis showed virus in low concentration in the lymph nodes, spleen, and lungs. The marked viruria, the high concentration of BK virus, and the extensive distribution of viral antigen throughout the kidney all suggest that infection with BK virus was the basis of the severe renal parenchymal injury.

Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML): In vitro cell‐mediated immune responses to mitogens and JC virus

cell-mediated immunity was studied by in vitro tests in seven patients with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). Lymphocyte proliferation in response to mitogenic stimulation was reduced to a variable degree in all patients, indicating a general impairment of cell-mediated immune responsiveness, although mitogen-induced production of the lymphokine leukocyte migration inhibitory factor (LIF) was normal in most cases. Cell-mediated immunity to JC virus (JCV) was assessed by LIF production in response to JCV antigen. In the six PML patients tested, LIF production with JCV antigen was absent despite the presence of antibody to JCV in serum. This contrasted with positive LIF production in seropositive normal individuals and patients with other diseases. These results provide the first in vitro evidence of a depressed cell-mediated immune response to JCV in patients with PML, and support the hypothesis that PML is accompanied by a selective marked deficiency in cellular response to this virus in association with a general depression of cell-mediated immunity of variable severity.

Plaque assays for myxoma and fibroma viruses and differentiation of the viruses by plaque form

Abstract It was shown that myxoma virus produced plaques on monolayers of rabbit kidney cells or rabbit heart fibroblasts and that fibroma virus produced visible foci of infection on monolayers of rabbit kidney cells. This allowed development of plaque-count assays for the two viruses. With each virus the numbers of plaques produced were linearly related to virus concentration, and plaque formation was inhibited by specific antiserum. The plaque assay for each virus was at least as sensitive as the intradermal assay in rabbits, and the plaque assay for myxoma virus was more sensitive than the pockcount assay on the CAM of the chicken embryo. The fibroma virus focus of infection on monolayers of rabbit kidney cells under agar consisted of a small pile of cells easily differentiated from the focus of damaged cells produced by myxoma virus.

Characterization of tissue culture-induced heterogeneity in DNAs of independent isolates of JC virus.

After several serial passages at low multiplicities of infection in primary human foetal glial cells at 37 degrees C, the DNA of prototype (MAD-1) JC virus and that of MAD-2 and MAD-3 are typically heterogeneous in size, but DNAs of MAD-4 and MAD-6 are relatively homogeneous. A similar dichotomy was observed in the DNAs of six isolates propagated more recently in glial cultures at 39 degrees C under similar conditions of brief passage in vitro at low multiplicities of infection: the DNAs of two (MAD-9 and -10) were heterogeneous, but the DNAs of four others (MAD-8, -11, -12 and -14) were homogeneous. Therefore, the propensity of the viral genome to sustain deletions was an intrinsic property of each isolate. However, actual induction and maintenance of the presumably defective DNAs was influenced by the relative proportions of permissive spongioblasts and semi-permissive astrocytes in the glial cultures and by the multiplicity of infection. Deletions in MAD-1 DNA were confined to the presumptive early region and spanned the BamHI cleavage site (map position 0.505). The heterogeneity was more complex in the DNAs of MAD-2 and MAD-3, but again most of the deletions, which ranged up to 12% of full-length DNA, spanned the BamHI site. We propose that the differential susceptibility to deletion among isolates is a consequence of natural genetic variation in JC virus.

Specificity of the Tumor-Specific Transplantation Antigen Induced by JC Virus, a Human Polyomavirus

The specificity of the tumor-specific transplantation antigen (TSTA) induced by JC virus was investigated by cross protection tests in weanling hamsters. Hamsters immunized with JC virus, BK virus, or SV40 were challenged 5 weeks later with known numbers of JC virus- or SV40-induced hamster tumor cells. Both the JC virus-immune and the SV40-immune hamsters showed resistance to challenge with homologous but not heterologous tumor cells, and the BK virus-immune hamsters were not resistant to either heterologous tumor cell. The TSTA induced by JC virus did not cross-react with that induced by SV40.

Use of Centrifugal Force to Promote Adsorption of Myxoma Virus to Cell Monolayers.

Summary Centrifugation of myxoma virus onto preformed monolayers of RK and RHF-1 cells substantially increased the number of PFU compared to other methods of virus adsorption. The maximum number of PFU was obtained after only 15 minutes of centrifugation at 1900 g at room temperature. Virtually simultaneous infection of all RK cells growing as a monolayer on the bottom of shell vials can be accomplished by centrifuging a low multiplicity of myxoma virus onto the cells at 1270 g for 10–20 minutes.