The attachment of the foot-and-mouth disease virus Asia I Iran 1/73 to BHK suspension cells does not require virus specific cell receptors.

Experiments are described which show that a member of the picornaviridae (FMD virus Asia I Iran 1/73) attaches to BHK suspension cells in a manner which precludes a requirement for virus specific receptors on the cell plasma membrane. While it may be possible to demonstrate the apparent saturation of the cell surface with multiple doses of virus, an increase of the concentration of the dosing suspension results in more virus attachment. Indeed, it was found that with the amounts of virus which were made available it was not possible to saturate the ability of the cell to take up virus particles. This, coupled with the demonstration that the uptake of virus followed the pattern of uptake of gas molecules on to a solid surface (Freundlich adsorption isotherm), drew us to the conclusion that, in contrast to other reported systems with similar viruses and cells, the uptake of the FMD virus we used to BHK suspension cells did not require virus specific cell receptor sites.