Propagation of archetype and nonarchetype JC virus variants in human fetal brain cultures: demonstration of interference activity by archetype JC virus.

In immunologically normal individuals, the polyomavirus, JC virus (JCV), produces an asymptomatic primary infection followed by lifelong persistence of the virus in renal tubular epithelial cells. In some immunocompromised patients, however, in particular acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients, JCV causes an opportunistic central nervous system (CNS) disorder, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). JCV DNA as it persists in kidneys (archetypal JCV) and JCV DNA isolated from PML lesions show differences in their regulatory regions in which transcription and replication are controlled. Archetypal JCV DNA has a single enhancer and no rearrangements or deletions in the regulatory region. In contrast, JCV DNA from PML isolates is characterized by alterations in the regulatory region. Some PML-associated JCVs can be grown in cultures of human fetal brain (HFB) cells. Growth of archetypal JCV in cultured cells has not been reported, however. Here we demonstrate successful propagation of the archetypal JCV, strain GS/K, in HFB cells. Growth occurred more slowly and to lower titers than is seen with the prototypical PML JCV strain Mad-1, with relatively few cells containing viral T antigen (T-Ag) or viral capsid protein, Vp1. Interestingly, GS/K growth could be enhanced, with a large increase in viral DNA and cytopathic effect, by coinfection with GS/B, a nonarchetypal brain-derived JCV variant isolated from the same PML patient as GS/K. The amount of GS/K DNA was also greatly enhanced when it was cotransfected with Mad-1 JCV DNA, the prototypical PML isolate. In contrast to GS/K plus GS/B-cotransfected cells, in GS/K plus Mad-1-infected cells, cytopathic effect was not increased. On subsequent passage of culture lysates to naïve cells, however, the infection produced by either combination of viral DNAs slowed, no cytopathic effect (CPE) was present, and the amount of GS/B or Mad-1 viral DNA was greatly reduced as compared to that of GS/K DNA. These data suggest that GS/K was able to use either GS/B or Mad-1 as a helper and that GS/K was in turn able to interfere with the growth of either helper virus. Archetype JCV can be successfully propagated in HFB cells, although infection develops much more slowly than that caused by the PML JCV variant Mad-1. The ability of archetypal and variant JCVs to enhance or retard each other's replication may have implications in vivo for the maintenance of JCV persistence and the growth of JCV variants.