A variant of MDCK cell line which restricted growth of influenza viruses mainly through suppression of viral primary transcription.

By serial subculture of MDCK cells which survived high multiplicity infections with AWBY-140, a weakly cytolytic mutant of influenza virus A/WSN (H1N1), we established a variant cell line (MDCK-L cells) that was uniquely resistant to infection with influenza A and B viruses, yielding 3 to 4 orders lower amount of progeny virus compared with MDCK cells. Competitive polymerase chain reaction revealed that the amount of primary transcript produced in MDCK-L cells infected with 10 PFU/cell of influenza virus A/Aichi was suppressed to 1/100 of that in MDCK cells similarly infected, although the amount of virus adsorbed to MDCK-L cells was 1/4 of MDCK cells. Even when MDCLK-L cells were infected with 40 PFU/cell of Aichi to overcome the lower amount of internalized virus in those cells, the results were the same. The synthesis of v-, c- and mRNAs, as well as proteins of infected A/Aichi was below detectable level in MDCK-L cells, in contrast with MDCK cells, where they were clearly demonstrable by ribonuclease protection assay or polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.