Virus particles and murine leukemia virus complement-fixing antigen in neoplastic and nonneoplastic cell lines

Twenty-seven lines of murine tissue cultures derived from 12 different cell pools and grown on various media were examined with the electron microscope for morphologically detectable virus particles. They were also tested for complement-fixing mouse leukemia virus antigens and for recoverable virus. A 100-percent correlation between results obtained by these two methods is reported.An additional 19 lines from 8 different cell pools were examined for either virus particles or complement-fixing antigens. All lines were assayed for neoplastic transformation. Seven cell pools gave rise to lines showing evidence of contamination with leukemia virus. Since most of these lines had also undergone "spontaneous" neoplastic transformation in vitro, this virus cannot be excluded as a possible cause of the neoplastic change, or of influencing it. The remaining cell pools gave rise to lines with no evidence of contamination with leukemia virus;but most of these lines also underwent similar transformation. These results suggest that "spontaneous" neoplastic transformation can occur in the absence of detectable mouse leukemia virus.     

A virus-encoded "superantigen" in a retrovirus-induced immunodeficiency syndrome of mice.

The development of an immunodeficiency syndrome of mice caused by a replication-defective murine leukemia virus (MuLV) is paradoxically associated with a rapid activation and proliferation of CD4+ T cells that are dependent on the presence of B cells. The responses of normal spleen cells to B cell lines that express the defective virus indicated that these lines express a cell surface determinant that shares "superantigenic" properties with some microbial antigens and Mls-like self antigens. This antigen elicited a potent proliferative response that was dependent on the presence of CD4+ T cells and was associated with selective expansion of cells bearing V beta 5. This response was markedly inhibited by a monoclonal antibody specific for the MuLV gag-encoded p30 antigen.     

Cyclic AMP-modulated potassium channels in murine B cells and their precursors

A voltage-dependent potassium current (the delayed rectifier) has been found in murine B cells and their precursors with the whole-cell patch-clamp technique. The type of channel involved in the generation of this current appears to be present throughout all stages of pre-B-cell differentiation, since it is detected in pre-B cell lines infected with Abelson murine leukemia virus; these cell lines represent various phases of B-cell development. Thus, the presence of this channel is not obviously correlated with B-cell differentiation. Although blocked by Co2+, the channel, or channels, does not appear to be activated by Ca2+ entry. It is, however, inactivated by high intracellular Ca2+ concentrations. In addition, elevation of intracellular adenosine 3', 5'-monophosphate induces at all potentials a rapid decrease in the peak potassium conductance and increased rates of activation and inactivation. Therefore, potassium channels can be physiologically modulated by second messengers in lymphocytes.     

Reversion of murine sarcoma virus transformed mouse cells: variants without a rescuable sarcoma virus

Murine sarcoma virus transformed mouse 3T3 cells, which are negative for murine leukemia virus and which yield sarcoma virus after superinfection with murine leukenmia virus, spotaneously give rise to flat variants front which murine sarcoma virus can no longer be rescued. The revertants support leukemia viruis growth and show an enhanced sensitivity to murine sarcoma superinfection and, like normal cells, do not release RNA-dependent DNA polymerase activity. Because revertants could be obtained with high frequency from progeny of single transformed cells, each cell that containts the sarconma virus genome seems to have the capacity to suppress or eliminate an RNA tumor virus native to its species of origin.     

Demonstration of biological activity of a murine leukemia virus of New Zealand black mice

Although New Zealand Black mouse embryo and adult tissues show evidence of murine leukemia viral particles and antigens, efforts to demonstrate biological activity of a murine leukemia virus by standard methods have proved negative. Cocultivation of tissues of these mice with non-virus-yielding hamster cells transformed by Moloney sarcoma virus, however, has resulted in the rescue of a pseudotype sarcoma virus, presumably carrying the New Zealand Black mouse leukemia virus coat. This virus has an unusual host restriction, producing foci of cell alteration only in rat cells.     

Hybridization of Burkitt lymphoblastoid cells

Burkitt lymphoblastoid cell lines have been fused to mouse and human cell lines with the use of inactivated Sendai virus. The heterokaryons have developed into somatic cell hybrids of both parental cell types. Chromosome analyses confirm that cells now growing in selective medium are hybrids. Initial observations of preparations of the hybrid cells reveal that 5'-iododeoxyuridine can induce continued synthesis of Epstein-Barr virus antigens by these hybrid cells.     

The role of B cells for in vivo T cell responses to a Friend virus-induced leukemia

B cells can function as antigen-presenting cells and accessory cells for T cell responses. This study evaluated the role of B cells in the induction of protective T cell immunity to a Friend murine leukemia virus (F-MuLV)-induced leukemia (FBL). B cell-deficient mice exhibited significantly reduced tumor-specific CD4+ helper and CD8+ cytotoxic T cell responses after priming with FBL or a recombinant vaccinia virus containing F-MuLV antigens. Moreover, these mice had diminished T cell responses to the vaccinia viral antigens. Tumor-primed T cells transferred into B cell-deficient mice effectively eradicated disseminated FBL. Thus, B cells appear necessary for efficient priming but not expression of tumor and viral T cell immunity.     

Xenotropic viruses: murine leukemia viruses associated with NIH Swiss, NZB, and other mouse strains

Murine leukemia virus activity is present in tissues from NIH Swiss and other mouse strains after cocultivation with nonvirus-yielding rat cells transformed by Harvey sarcoma virus. The resulting pseudotype sarcoma virus has the same type-specific coat as the virus previously isolated from New Zealand black (NZB) mice, and, like the NZB virus, it is unable to infect mouse cells. The results show that this NZB type virus is endogenous in other strains of mice and is xenotropic; that is, it grows only in cells foreign to the host. This is the first clear demonstration that NIH Swiss mice also carry indigenous infectious murine leukemia virus.     

Genetic mapping of a murine leukemia virus-inducing locus of AKR mice

The chromosomal location of one of the two murine leukemia virus-inducing loci of AKR mice has been determined. The locus, which appears to be the integrated genome of the virus, is designated Akv-1, and is on linkage group 1, 12 map units from Gpi-1, with gene order c-Gpi-1-Akv-1. This identification of a closely linked gene whose phenotype is independent of virus expression should facilitate analysis of the biologic importance of the Akv-1 locus.     

Immunodeficiency and clonal growth of target cells induced by helper-free defective retrovirus

The murine acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is induced by a defective retrovirus. To study the role of virus replication in this disease, helper-free stocks of defective Duplan virus were produced. These stocks were highly pathogenic in absence of detectable replicating murine leukemia viruses (MuLVs) other than xenotropic MuLV. They induced expansion of the infected cell population (over 1000-fold), and this cell expansion was oligoclonal in origin and, most likely, arose through cell division. These results suggest that this defective virus is oncogenic, inducing a primary neoplasia associated with an acquired immunodeficiency syndrome as a paraneoplastic syndrome. These data emphasize the need to determine whether virus replication is necessary for the progression of other immunodeficiency diseases, including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, and whether these diseases also represent paraneoplastic syndromes.     

The CML-specific P210 bcr/abl protein, unlike v-abl, does not transform NIH/3T3 fibroblasts

The v-abl oncogene of the Abelson murine leukemia virus (A-MuLV) is known to efficiently transform NIH/3T3 fibroblasts in vitro and to cause an acute lymphosarcoma in susceptible murine hosts. The role of its relative, the bcr/abl gene product, in the etiology of human chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) remains speculative. To assess the transforming properties of the bcr/abl gene product, complementary DNA clones encoding the CML-specific P210 bcr/abl protein were expressed in NIH/3T3 fibroblasts. In contrast to the v-abl oncogene product P160, the P210 bcr/abl gene product did not transform NIH/3T3 cells. Cell lines were isolated that expressed high levels of the P210 bcr/abl protein but were morphologically normal. During the course of these experiments, a transforming recombinant of bcr/abl was isolated which fuses gag determinants derived from helper virus to the NH2-terminus of the bcr/abl protein. This suggests that a property of viral gag sequences, probably myristylation-dependent membrane localization, must be provided to bcr/abl for it to transform fibroblasts.     

Murine leukemia virus: restriction in fused permissive and nonpermissive cells

Cultures of human cells nonpermissive for mouse leukemia virus replication could not be induced to support virus replication by homologous fusion in the presence of Moloney leukemia virus. Human cells were also fused with permissive mouse cells, and the fate of the virus in heterokaryons was determined by a simultaneous autoradiography and fluorescent antibody technique. Heterokaryons containing the full chromosome complement of both cells were likewise nonpermissive for virus synthesis, but hybrids of human and mouse cells, which lacked up to half of the human chromosome complement, were permissive for virus synthesis. The results suggest that human cell genes can direct a repressive control over mouse leukemia virus replication.     

Viral infection across species barriers: reversible alteration of murine sarcoma virus for growth in cat cells

Infection of cat embryo cells by a centrifugally induced aggregate of murine sarcoma virus and feline leukemia virus gave rise to a defective, focus-forming virus which propagated in cat cells, but not in mouse cells. This virus, apparently enveloped with a feline leukemia virus coat, was later subjected to aggregation with murine leukemia virus, whereupon it regained the capacity for growth in mouse cells.     

Insertion mutagenesis of embryonal carcinoma cells by retroviruses

Mutagenesis was studied in cultured F9 embryonal carcinoma cells infected with a variant of Moloney murine leukemia virus. Proviral insertion induced the inactivation of the hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase locus, and the virus was used to isolate the mutated genes rapidly. Mutagenesis by these methods may be useful for the genetic dissection of the various mammalian cell phenotypes.     

Type C RNA tumor viruses as determinants of chemical carcinogenesis: effects of sequence of treatment

Fischer rat embryo cells were treated with 3-methylcholanthrene before or after inoculation with Rauscher murine leukemia virus. Transformation was not observed in untreated control cultures, cultures given virus or 3-methyl-cholanthrene alone, or cultures treated first with 3-methylcholanthrene followed by inoculation with the virus after removal of the chemical. Transformation was dependent upon the presence of Rauscher murine leukemia virus at the time of chemical treatment.     

Productive infection and cell-free transmission of human T-cell leukemia virus in a nonlymphoid cell line

Human T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV), American PL isolate, was transmitted by cocultivation and by cell-free filtrates to a nonlymphoid human osteogenic sarcoma (HOS) cell line, designated HOS/PL, but not to nine other lines bearing receptors for HTLV. HOS and HOS/PL cells are not dependent on interleukin-2 and do not express interleukin-2 receptors that are recognized by anti-Tac monoclonal antibody. HTLV released by the Japanese MT2 cell line was also transmitted to HOS cells. The infected HOS cells release substantial titers of progeny HTLV which is antigenically indistinguishable from parental virus and is able to transform T cells.     

HTLV-V: a new human retrovirus isolated in a Tac-negative T cell lymphoma/leukemia

A new human retrovirus was isolated from a continuous cell line derived from a patient with CD4+ Tac- cutaneous T cell lymphoma/leukemia. This virus is related to but distinct from human T cell leukemia/lymphoma virus types I and II (HTLV-I and HTLV-II) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1). With the use of a fragment of provirus cloned from one patient with T cell leukemia, closely related sequences were found in DNA of the cell line and of tumor cells from seven other patients with the same disease; these sequences were only distantly related to HTLV-I. The phenotype of the cells and the clinical course of the disease were clearly distinguishable from leukemia associated with HTLV-I. All patients and the wife of one patient showed a weak serological cross-reactivity with both HTLV-I and HIV-1 antigens. None of the patients proved to be at any apparent risk for HIV-1 infection. The name proposed for this virus is HTLV-V, and the date indicate that it may be a primary etiological factor in the major group of cutaneous T cell lymphomas/leukemias, including the sporadic lymphomas known as mycoses fungoides.     

Segregation of loci for C-type virus induction in strains of mice with high and low incidence of leukemia

Multiple genetic loci for induction of murine leukemia viruses are demonstrated in cells of the high leukemic incidence C58 mouse strain. The biologic properties of viruses at C58 inducibility loci are clearly distinguishable from those of viruses activated from mouse cells containing a locus for virus induction of the low leukemia incidence BALB/c strain. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the genes for virus induction in normal mouse embryo cells represent viral structural information.     

Yeast KEX2 endopeptidase correctly cleaves a neuroendocrine prohormone in mammalian cells

Mammalian cell lines (BSC-40, NG108-15, and GH4C1) that cannot process the murine neuroendocrine peptide precursor prepro-opiomelanocortin (mPOMC) when its synthesis is directed by a vaccinia virus vector were coinfected with a second recombinant vaccinia virus carrying the yeast KEX2 gene, which encodes an endopeptidase that cleaves at pairs of basic amino acid residues. mPOMC was cleaved intracellularly to a set of product peptides normally found in vivo, including mature gamma-lipotropin and beta-endorphin1-31. In GH4C1 cells (a rat pituitary line), product peptides were incorporated into stored secretory granules. These results suggest that the inability of any particular cell line to process a prohormone precursor is due to the absence of a suitable endogenous processing enzyme.