So Hashizume

Regulation of plaque size and host range by a vaccinia virus gene related to complement system proteins

A vaccinia virus variant, LC16m8, and its parental Lister (Elstree) strain (LO) were employed to identify the viral gene(s) responsible for plaque size and host range: the large-plaque-forming LO strain but not the small-plaque-forming LC16m8 strain can actively proliferate in Vero (YTV) cells. Previously, we suggested that some particular gene(s) present in the HindIII D fragment of LO DNA was responsible for these biological activities. In the present experiment, the mapping of the putative gene was done by introducing various subfragments of the HindIII D fragment of LO DNA into the gene of LC16m8 strain and screening of the resultant virus variants for the capability of forming large plaques or of proliferating well in Vero cells. The results indicated that an open reading frame (called ps/hr gene) in LO HindIII D fragment was responsible for either plaque size or host range. This gene encoded a polypeptide of 317 amino acids related to the regulators of complement activation (RCA) gene family of mammals. Thus, the present genetic analysis provided direct evidence for a previously unrecognized function of RCA-related proteins encoded by the virus.

Prevalence of vaccine-derived polioviruses in the environment.

A survey of poliovirus in river and sewage water was conducted from October 1993 to September 1995 in Toyama Prefecture, Japan. In this study, 25 isolates differentiated as type 2 vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPVs) were characterized using mutant analysis by PCR and restriction-enzyme cleavage (MAPREC) to estimate the ratio of 481-G revertants correlated to neurovirulence in a virus population. Of these isolates, 23 (92%) comprised between 44 and 96% 481-G revertants by MAPREC. The other two isolates had revertant percentages close to the 0.6% of the attenuated reference strain. It was presumed that these 23 isolates would be variant with potential neurovirulence by MAPREC analysis. Of the 23 isolates, three were isolated from river water. Moreover, our results by MAPREC showed that type 2 poliovirus was phenotypically more variable than type 1 (69%) or type 3 (55%), as determined in previous studies. The prevalence of virulent-type VDPVs in river and sewage water suggested that the oral poliovaccine itself had led to wide environmental pollution in nature. To terminate the cycle of virus transmission in nature, the ecology of VDPVs should be studied further. A hygiene programme, inactivated poliovirus vaccine immunization and well-maintained herd immunity may play key roles in reducing the potential risk of infection by virulent VDPVs.

Genetic Analysis of Vaccinia Virus Lister Strain and Its Attenuated Mutant LC16m8: Production of Intermediate Variants by Homologous Recombination

We prepared vaccinia virus variants by introducing part of the HindIII D fragment of the DNA of the parental Lister (LO) strain (temperature-resistant and forming large plaques and pocks) into the attenuated LC16m8 strain (temperature-sensitive and forming small plaques and pocks) by the use of a homologous recombination technique in vivo. Special attention was paid to the HindIII D fragment, since this fragment has an extra XhoI site in LC16m8 which is absent from LO. After HindIII D of LO was introduced as a calcium phosphate precipitate into rabbit kidney (RK13) cells which had been infected with LC16m8, five virus variants (LOTC-1 to LOTC-5) forming much larger plaques than LC16m8 were cloned. In LOTC-2, LOTC-4 and LOTC-5, the introduction of at least part of HindIII D of LO into the corresponding HindIII D region of the LC16m8 genome was apparent as judged by the disappearance of the XhoI site, whereas variants LOTC-1 and LOTC-3 retained the site. The biological characteristics of all the LOTC variants were similar to each other. Their plaque size and pock size were similar to those of LO, whereas they were rather akin to LC16m8 with regard to temperature sensitivity and neurovirulence. The present results strongly suggested that part of the HindIII D fragment was involved in determining biological characteristics affecting plaque size and pock size, but had little influence on temperature sensitivity and neurovirulence.

Neurovirulence of Type 1 Polioviruses Isolated from Sewage in Japan

ABSTRACT Sixteen type 1 poliovirus strains were isolated from a sewage disposal plant located downstream of the Oyabe River in Japan between October 1993 and September 1995. The isolates were intratypically differentiated as vaccine-derived strains. Neutralizing antigenicity analysis with monoclonal antibodies and estimation of neurovirulence by mutant analysis by PCR and restriction enzyme cleavage (MAPREC) were performed for 13 type 1 strains of these isolates. The isolates were classified into three groups. Group I (five strains) had a variant type of antigenicity and neurovirulent phenotype. Group II (four strains) had the vaccine type of antigenicity and neurovirulent phenotype. Group III (four strains) had the vaccine type of antigenicity and an attenuated phenotype. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the virulent isolates were neutralized by human sera obtained after oral poliomyelitis vaccine (OPV) administration, and the sera of rats immunized with inactivated poliovirus vaccine. Although vaccination was effective against virulent polioviruses, virulent viruses will continue to exist in the environment as long as OPV is in use.

Safety of Attenuated Smallpox Vaccine LC16m8 in Immunodeficient Mice

ABSTRACT Freeze-dried live attenuated smallpox vaccine LC16m8 prepared in cell culture has been the sole smallpox vaccine licensed in Japan since 1975 and was recently recommended as a WHO stockpile vaccine. We evaluated the safety of recently remanufactured lots of LC16m8 using a series of immunodeficient mouse models. These models included suckling mice, severe combined immunodeficiency disease (SCID) mice, and wild-type mice treated with cyclosporine. LC16m8 showed extremely low virulence in each of the three mouse models compared with that of its parental strains, Lister and LC16mO. These results provide further evidence that LC16m8 is one of the safest replication-competent smallpox vaccines in the world and may be considered for use in immunodeficient patients.

Analysis of the accumulation of mutants in Sabin attenuated polio vaccine viruses passaged in Vero cells

To confirm the safety of oral poliomyelitis vaccine (OPV) cultured in Vero cells, the genetic stability of cultured polio vaccine viruses was analysed by MAPREC (mutant analysis by PCR and restriction enzyme cleavage). The rates of mutant accumulation of the viruses passaged in Vero cells under a low multiplicity of infection (MOI) condition (approximately 10(-3.5)CCID50/cell; the same as under usual OPV production conditions) were higher than those passaged in secondary cultured monkey kidney cells. However, the rates of mutant accumulation were restrained when the viruses were cultured under a high MOI condition (approximately 10(-1.5)CCID50/cell) in Vero cells. Furthermore, neurovirulence of the passaged viruses in pollovirus susceptible transgenic mice PVR-Tg21 was shown to correlate highly with the results of MAPREC. It is expected that our results will contribute to the large scale preparation of safe and effective OPV using Vero cells.

Further Development of a New Transgenic Mouse Test for the Evaluation of the Immunogenicity and Protective Properties of Inactivated Poliovirus Vaccine

Recently, we developed and optimized a new method for the evaluation of the protective properties of serotype 2 inactivated poliovirus vaccines (IPV). The method is based on the immunization and subsequent challenge of transgenic (Tg) mice susceptible to poliovirus. We describe a similar method for the assessment of the protectiveness of serotype 1 IPV and demonstrate that experimental IPV produced from attenuated Sabin strain (sIPV) of serotype 1 poliovirus induced serum neutralizing antibodies, immunoglobulin (Ig) G, IgM, and salivary IgA at titers comparable to those induced by conventional IPV (cIPV) produced from the wild-type Mahoney strain. In contrast to our previous results with serotype 2 sIPV, serotype 1 sIPV provided even better protection of Tg mice than cIPV against challenge with wild-type Mahoney strain.

Estimation of the neurovirulence of poliovirus by non-radioisotope molecular analysis to quantify genomic changes.

Mutant analysis by polymerase chain reaction and restriction enzyme cleavage (MAPREC) has been developed for poliovirus to determine quantitatively for the presence of genomic changes in particular nucleotide sequences correlate with the characteristic of neurovirulence for monkeys. Currently the MAPREC is scheduled to be used as a routine safety test for oral poliomyelitis vaccine (OPV). Radioisotopes (RI) are used in MAPREC for quantitative determinations, a circumstance likely to limit its use. We investigated the possibility of developing a modified MAPREC, which did not require the use of radioisotopes, and developed a procedure designated NON-RI MAPREC. Conventional MAPREC and NON-RI MAPREC were then used in a series of studies in which analyses were performed on Sabin type 1 and Sabin type 3 attenuated vaccine polioviruses prepared under various conditions. Under the experimental conditions used, the stability of the genome of type 1 virus was shown to be markedly greater than that of the type 3 virus, and the frequency of mutants was observed to vary in relation to both the virus strain and the virus inoculum used. The results of the studies relating to the two analytical procedures used indicated that the reproducibility of both methods was of a similarly high order, but that MAPREC had a somewhat broader range of sensitivity than NON-RI MAPREC. As the quantity of genomic changes in OPV relating to neurovirulent properties are within the range of detection by NON-RI MAPREC, this procedure can be used as a quality control test for OPV.

Evaluation of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay based on binding inhibition for type-specific quantification of poliovirus neutralization-relevant antibodies.

To detect neutralization‐relevant antibodies against 3 types of poliovirus (PV) without using tissue cultures and live viruses, an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on monoclonal antibody‐binding inhibition was evaluated using sera from 80 vaccinated Japanese children and 60 Pakistani poliomyelitis patients. Compared with the neutralization test, the sensitivity of the inhibition ELISA was 100% (111/111) for detection of anti‐PV1 antibody, 98.3% (118/120) for anti‐PV2, and 96.5% (82/85) for anti‐PV3, and the specificity was 93.1% (27/29), 100% (20/20), and 92.7% (51/55), respectively. Thus, the inhibition ELISA showed excellent potential as a seroepidemiologic tool in both vaccinated and naturally‐infected populations.

The use of antipoliovirus monoclonal antibodies as an improved safety test for oral live poliomyelitis vaccine.

Almost all the individual preparations of poliovirus type 3 specific monoclonal antibodies showed high neutralizing antibody titres against low-titre Sabin type 3 virus with a titer of 10(2) CCID 50/25 microliters. However, the preparations failed to neutralize high-titre virus at a titre of about 10(7) CCID50/25 microliters (undiluted virus fluid). The use of pooled monoclonal antibodies, comprising two or more individual antibodies, however, showed a high neutralizing activity for the high-titre virus suspension. The results indicate that the neutralization of high-titre Sabin type 3 virus can be achieved by the use of pooled monoclonal antibodies when appropriate antibodies are present. It seems likely that neutralization by these antibodies is achieved through the recognition of different neutralizing epitopes by specific antibodies. One of the safety tests used during the production of oral poliomyelitis vaccine (OPV) is that which employs type-specific antipoliovirus rabbit sera to detect adventitious viruses in monovalent poliovirus fluid. It has, however, proved difficult to prepare sera of this nature which can completely neutralize high-titre poliovirus having no cross-reactivity against other types of poliovirus. In our studies, pooled monoclonal antibodies showed a neutralizing activity against high-titre Sabin type 3 virus about 100-fold greater than that shown by rabbit antisera. Moreover, these antibodies appear to have two further important advantage for use in testing the safety of OPV: they showed no cross-neutralizing activity against heterotypic polioviruses; and they showed no evidence inhibiting the propagation of a number of viruses of monkey and human origin.