An infectious cDNA clone of the poliovirus Sabin strain could be used as a stable repository and inoculum for the oral polio live vaccine.

Viruses were recovered from HeLa S3 cells and African green monkey kidney (AGMK) cells transfected with an infectious cDNA clone of poliovirus vaccine Sabin 1 strain. The viruses recovered from the different DNA-transfected cells were tested for the biological characteristics of temperature sensitivity (rct marker), plaque size, and bicarbonate concentration dependency (d marker). The results revealed that the above properties were similar to those obtained from tests on the Sabin 1 vaccine reference strain. The recovered viruses and the vaccine reference virus were passaged in AGMK cells at an elevated temperature of 37.5 degrees, and the passaged isolates were tested for the rct marker. The virus recovered from AGMK cells had the most stable rct phenotype while the virus from HeLa S3 cells had a similar stability to that of the reference virus, suggesting that the virus from AGMK cells would be more suitable as a vaccine strain than the other two viruses. Furthermore, an infectious cDNA clone of high specific infectivity, constructed by introducing SV40 large T antigen into the plasmid, was used for production of high titers of virus after transfection. The results of in vitro biological tests on the recovered virus suggested that virus produced in the transfected AGMK cells also had the high quality that is desirable in vaccine stocks. Monkey neurovirulence tests performed with these recovered viruses revealed that the recovered viruses were weakly neurovirulent, similar to the vaccine reference virus. The infectious cDNA clone of the poliovirus vaccine strain could therefore be used to generate a possible inoculum of the oral polio live vaccine. Our findings strongly suggest that an infectious cDNA clone of poliovirus RNA may be used to preserve the constancy and quality of the present seed viruses of the Sabin 1 vaccine strain.