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Differential Effect of Phleomycin on the Infectivity of Poliovirus and Poliovirus-Induced Ribonucleic Acids

¹ Department of Cell Biology, Roche Institute of Molecular Biology, Nutley, New Jersey 07110

ABSTRACT

The infectivity of intact poliovirus was not affected by exposure to the antibiotic phleomycin at concentrations as high as 200 µg/ml, whereas that of the singlestranded poliovirus ribonucleic acid (RNA) was inactivated to 99% by pretreatment of the RNA with phleomycin at a concentration of 2 µg/ml. The infectivity of double and multistranded RNA was 10 times less sensitive than that of singlestranded RNA to the action of this antibiotic. Preincubation of HeLa cells for 30 min with 10 to 50 µg of phleomycin reduced the sensitivity of the cells to infection by viral RNA and intact virus, indicating that phleomycin interferes with cellular functions necessary for virus replication. When phleomycin was added to cells at different times after infection with single- or double-stranded RNA, the highest inactivation of infective centers was observed immediately after infection. With time of incubation at 37 C, the infective centers became more resistant to the action of phleomycin.