Production of feline immunodeficiency virus in feline and non-feline non-lymphoid cell lines by transfection of an infectious molecular clone.

An infectious molecular clone of the TM1 strain of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) was transfected into each of one feline (CRFK), two simian (COS and Vero) and two human (SW480 and HeLa) non-lymphoid cell lines, and virus production was assayed on feline T lymphoblastoid MYA-1 cells by monitoring reverse transcriptase activity. Infectious virus was produced in CRFK, Vero and HeLa cells, but not in COS and SW480 cells. When the basal promoter activity of the FIV long terminal repeat (LTR) was examined in these cell lines by using a chloramphenicol acetyltransferase assay, the activity correlated with the virus production in each cell line. Furthermore, when the activity of the FIV LTR was compared with those of three primate lentivirus LTRs, the highest activity in all the cell lines examined was produced by the LTR of simian immunodeficiency virus from African green monkey (SIVAGM), suggesting that it has a wide expression range. In COS and SW480 cells, the activity of the FIV LTR was much lower than that of the SIVAGM LTR. These results indicate that, whereas the primary block to FIV infection of certain cells may occur at the cell surface, the FIV LTR may also participate in controlling virus replication, as an intracellular mechanism.