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Journal of Virology, June 2004, p. 6649-6656, Vol. 78, No. 12
0022-538X/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JVI.78.12.6649-6656.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Role of an Arbovirus Nonstructural Protein in Cellular Pathogenesis and Virus Release

Division of Geographic Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294,¹ Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, United Kingdom²

Received 1 September 2003/ Accepted 25 February 2004

The insect-borne Bluetongue virus (BTV) is considered the prototypic Orbivirus, a member of the Reovirus family. One of the hallmarks of Orbivirus infection is the production of large numbers of intracellular tubular structures of unknown function. For BTV these structures are formed as the polymerization product of a single 64-kDa nonstructural protein, NS1, encoded by the viral double-stranded RNA genome segment 6. Although the NS1 protein is the most abundant viral protein synthesized in infected cells, its function has yet to be determined. One possibility is that NS1 tubules may be involved in the translocation of newly formed viral particles to the plasma membrane, and NS1-specific monoclonal antibodies have been shown to react with viral particles leaving infected cells. In the present study we generated a mammalian cell line that expresses a recombinant single-chain antibody fragment (scFv) derived from an NS1-specific monoclonal antibody (10B1) and analyzed the effect that this intracellular antibody has on BTV replication. Normally, BTV infection of mammalian cells in culture results in a severe cytopathic effect within 24 to 48 h postinfection manifested by cell rounding, apoptosis, and lytic release of virions into the culture medium. However, infection of scFv-expressing cells results in a marked reduction in the stability of NS1 and formation of NS1 tubules, a decrease in cytopathic effect, an increased release of infectious virus into the culture medium, and budding of virions from the plasma membrane. These results suggest that NS1 tubules play a direct role in the cellular pathogenesis and morphogenesis of BTV.

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