Isolation of a measles virus variant: protection of newborn mice from measles encephalitis by 24 h prior intracerebral inoculation with the variant.
A small plaque mutant with reduced neurovirulence in newborn mice was obtained from Edmonston strain measles virus after propagation for 5 months in NIH3T3 cells. It retained the antigenicity of the parental virus and tended to induce higher neutralizing antibody titers in the adult BALB/c mice. The intracerebral (but not intraperitoneal) inoculation of the live mutant virus one day before prevented the newborn BALB/c mice from encephalitis caused by the intracerebral challenge with the parental strain at a dose of 10-20 LD50. The intracerebral inoculation with the mutant virus whose replication capacity was inactivated by UV-irradiation was ineffective. The protection was not attributed to interferons nor to viral interference. The mechanism remains unknown.
Sakae
H
H
Department of Bacteriology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Japan.
Kohase
M
M
Kurata
T
T
Yoshikura
H
H
D016475:3T3 Cells; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism / Q000821:virology; D018188:Cardiovirus Infections / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D018792:Encephalitis, Viral / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004686:Encephalomyocarditis virus; D005260:Female; D007372:Interferons / Q000378:metabolism; D007700:Kinetics; D008457:Measles / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008459:Measles virus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D009154:Mutation; D009500:Neutralization Tests; D013344:Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control; D014709:Vero Cells; D010948:Viral Plaque Assay; D017735:Virus Latency; D014779:Virus Replication
D007372:Interferons