Inclusion of Antibodies to Cell Culture Media Preserves the Integrity of Genes Encoding RL13 and the Pentameric Complex Components During Fibroblast Passage of Human Cytomegalovirus. Viruses 2019 Mar 05;11(3)
Date
03/08/2019Pubmed ID
30841507Pubmed Central ID
PMC6466449DOI
10.3390/v11030221Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85062625849 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 13 CitationsAbstract
Propagation of human cytomegalovirus (CMV) in cultured cells results in genetic adaptations that confer improved growth in vitro and significant attenuation in vivo. Mutations in RL13 arise quickly, while mutations in the UL128-131A locus emerge later during fibroblast passage and disrupt formation of a glycoprotein complex that is important for entry into epithelial and endothelial cells. As CMV replicates in the context of host antibodies in vivo, we reasoned that antibodies might mitigate the accumulation of adaptive mutations during cell culture passage. To test this, CMV in infant urine was used to infect replicate fibroblast cultures. One lineage was passaged in the absence of CMV-hyperimmuneglobulin (HIG) while the other was passaged with HIG in the culture medium. The former lost epithelial tropism and acquired mutations disrupting RL13 and UL131A expression, whereas the latter retained epithelial tropism and both gene loci remained intact after 22 passages. Additional mutations resulting in single amino acid changes also occurred in UL100 encoding glycoprotein M, UL102 encoding a subunit of the helicase/primase complex, and UL122 encoding the Immediate Early 2 protein. An epitheliotropic RL13+/UL131A+ virus was isolated by limiting dilution in the presence of HIG and expanded to produce a working stock sufficient to conduct cell tropism experiments. Thus, production of virus stocks by culture in the presence of antibodies may facilitate in vitro experiments using viruses that are genetically more authentic than previously available.
Author List
Ourahmane A, Cui X, He L, Catron M, Dittmer DP, Al Qaffasaa A, Schleiss MR, Hertel L, McVoy MAAuthor
Li He Postdoctoral Researcher in the Pediatrics department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Antibodies, ViralCell Culture Techniques
Cell Line
Culture Media
Cytomegalovirus
Fibroblasts
Humans
Infant, Newborn
Mutation
Viral Proteins
Viral Tropism
Virus Internalization
Virus Replication
