Detection of porcine parvovirus using nonradioactive nucleic acid hybridization

Molecular cloning and characterization of the UL31 gene from duck enteritis virus

Using a combination of bioinformation analysis and Dot blot technique, a gene, designated hereafter as the duck enteritis virus (DEV) UL31 gene (GenBank accession number EF643559), was identified from the DEV CHv genomic library. Then, the UL31 gene was cloned and sequenced, which was composed of 933 nucleotides encoding 310 amino acids. Multiple sequence alignment suggested that the UL31 gene was highly conserved in Alphaherpesvirinae and similar to the other herpesviral UL31. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the gene had a close evolutionary relationship with the avian herperviruses, and DEV should be placed into a single cluster within the subfamily Alphaherpesvirinae. Antigen prediction indicated that several potential B-cell epitopes sites located in the UL31 protein. To further study, the UL31 gene was cloned into a pET prokaryotic expression vector and transformed into Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). A 55 kDa fusion protein was induced by the further culture at 37 degrees C after addition of 0.8 mM IPTG. Polyclonal antibody raised against the recombinant UL31 from rabbit was prepared. A protein about 55 kDa that reacted with the antibody was detected in immunoblots of bacterial proteins, suggesting that the 55 kDa protein was the product of the UL31 gene. Immunofluorescence analysis revealed that the protein was localized in very fine punctate forms in the nuclei of infected cells. Our results may provide some insight for further research about the gene and also enrich the database of herpesvirus.

Real-time PCR to detect and analyze virulent PPV loads in artificially challenged sows and their fetuses

To establish a real-time polymerase chain reaction with SYBR Green for detection and quantification of porcine parvovirus (PPV) in porcine tissues, two primers specific for the non-structural protein 1 gene were designed. The detection limit of this assay was 3-23 gene copies/reaction, equivalent to 0.001 TCID(50)/ml. The assay was linear over a 10(6) dilution range of template concentrations. Other porcine pathogens involved in reproductive disorders (porcine circovirus 2, porcine reproductive and respiratory virus, pseudorabies virus, classical swine fever virus) were negative by this assay. This assay could detect PPV titres at least 10(5) smaller than the hemagglutination assay. To better understand the pathogenesis of PPV, the levels of viral DNA in various tissues of artificially challenged sows and their fetuses were quantified with this method. The virus was found mainly in the heart, lung, spleen, kidney, and endometrium of sows, and mainly in the heart, spleen, lung, and testis of fetuses. This study provides a new tool for the study of PPV infection and distribution in sows and their fetuses.

Detection of porcine parvovirus DNA by the polymerase chain reaction assay using primers to the highly conserved nonstructural protein gene, NS-1

Porcine parvovirus (PPV) infection is associated with reproductive losses in swine and its causative agent, the PPV, has been isolated worldwide. Serological surveys and virus isolation studies throughout Brazil confirm the occurrence of PPV infection in this country. The most common methods to detect PPV infection are fluorescent antibody staining of fetal tissues, hemagglutination assay of tissue extracts and virus isolation from fetal tissues. Non-specificity and low sensitivity are the major drawbacks of these techniques. The development of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and nested-PCR assays for PPV DNA detection from infected cell lines and clinical samples is described. The primers were designed to a highly conserved region of the PPV genome which codes for the non-structural protein, NS-1. Results showed that PCR could detect PPV in titres at least 10(6) higher than the hemagglutination assay. The PCR and nested-PCR assays were used to detect successfully PPV DNA in clinical samples.

Development of a PCR-based method coupled with a microplate colorimetric assay for the detection of Porcine Parvovirus and application to diagnosis in piglet tissues and human plasma

A new method for Porcine Parvovirus (PPV) diagnosis was developed. The method is based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification followed by hybridization and colorimetric detection of PCR products in microwell plates. A highly specific and sensitive amplification step was ensured by primers carefully selected in the VP2 structural gene and optimized PCR conditions. Uracyl-DNA-Glycosylase (UDG) in combination with dUTP was used to avoid false-positive results, and 100 copies of internal control (IC) were added to each PCR reaction to reveal any false-negative samples. Biotinylated amplified fragments were hybridized on specific capture probes covalently linked to microwell plates. Finally, the detection of hybridized PCR products was performed by means of a colorimetric reaction, which was automated. The method permitted the detection of 10(3) copies (6 fg) of replicative form DNA (RF-DNA) in 20 mg of lung sample, and 500 copies (3 fg) in 100 microl of plasma. It was used to analyse 24 field piglet tissue samples, and 35 human plasma or serum specimens collected from patients treated with porcine Factor VIII concentrates.

Detection of challenge virus in fetal tissues by nested PCR as a test of the potency of a porcine parvovirus vaccine

To estimate the potency of a porcine parvovirus (PPV) vaccine, three vaccinated and three non-vaccinated pregnant gilts were infected with PPV and the distribution of the virus was studied in the tissues of their 51 fetuses. Virus detection was attempted using haemagglutination (HA) and immunofluorescence (IF) assays, as well as by standard (single) and nested polymerase chain reactions (PCR). None of the detection methods yielded positive results when used to test for the presence of virus in suspensions of organs from the fetuses from the vaccinated gilts. However, the virus was detected in the fetuses from non-vaccinated gilts as follows: HA was positive in 14 cases out of 23 (60.8%), IF in 16/23 (69.5%), standard PCR in 12/20 (60%), and the nested PCR in 19/23 (82.6%). Although the correlation among the results of various methods of virus detection was rather close (r < 0.83), the sensitivity of the nested PCR was the highest, both when testing dilutions of PPV and when analysing the fetal organs. The nested PCR therefore provides a reliable approach for studies of virus distribution in fetal organs, with special reference to potency tests on vaccines.

Chemiluminescent and colorigenic detection of cherry leaf roll virus with digoxigenin-labeled RNA probes

Digoxigenin-labeled RNA probes were used to detect cherry leaf roll virus in infected plants. A dot-blot hybridization immunoenzymatic assay in both crude sap extracts and partially purified tissue with a colorigenic and chemiluminescent detection was developed. The use of the new AMPPD substrate was found to be effective in clarified sap extracts in conditions were the colorigenic detection method failed. Both detection assays were effective when using unfractionated nucleic acid preparations, the chemiluminescent being five times more sensitive than the colorigenic. The chemiluminescent hybridization assay makes it possible to detect the virus at the picogram level. The non-radioactive dot-blot hybridization techniques described here turned out to be very suitable for plant virus diagnosis. The sensitivity of this method and those obtained by ELISA or radioactive dot-blot described previously is compared.

Tissue tropisms of porcine parvovirus in swine

Late-term gestation swine fetuses, similar to adult animals, are able to effectively mount immune response and survive porcine parvovirus (PPV) infection. An exception to this is the Kresse strain of PPV, which causes fetal death in late-term gestation swine fetuses. In an effort to understand the basis for this profound difference in pathogenicity between Kresse strain and the prototype strain of PPV, NADL-8, studies were designed to examine potential difference in sites of replication and quantity of virus produced between Kresse and NADL-8 strains. In order to define the sites of viral replication or sites of viral sequestration in situ hybridization, using digoxigenin-labeled strand-specific oligonucleotide probes, was applied to detect the presence of either double stranded viral DNA (RF) or viral single stranded DNA in tissues of infected fetuses. The presence and the state of viral DNA was confirmed by Southern blot hybridization. Relative amounts of RF-DNA synthesis in each tissue was compared between the two virus strains. Virus replication appeared to be of comparable levels in the livers of both NADL-8 and Kresse infected swine fetuses. Differences between these strains were observed in the brain and spleen; RF-DNA was detected in the brain and spleens of Kresse infected fetuses but not in NADL-8 infected ones. These findings indicate that differences in DNA replication of the PPV strains in selective sites, as well as the quantity of virus produced, may explain the distinction in pathogenesis of these viruses.

Restriction of porcine parvovirus replication in nonpermissive cells

Swine testicle (ST) cells and Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells differ in their ability to support replication of porcine parvovirus (PPV). Viral replication events in ST cells, a permissive cell type, and MDCK cells, a nonpermissive cell type, were compared in an attempt to elucidate putative mechanisms of restrictive virus replication. Radiolabeled PPV bound to the cell surface of both cell types equally well and the binding was shown to be PPV specific, indicating that the restriction was not at the cell surface level. In contrast, profound differences in intracellular events in PPV replication were observed between these two cell types. Synthesis of viral DNA was limited in MDCK cells in that the percentage of cells with replicative-form DNA as determined by strand-specific probe in situ hybridization was approximately 100-fold lower in MDCK cells than in ST cells at the same multiplicity of infection. Northern (RNA) blot analysis, using oligonucleotide probes derived from both structural and nonstructural protein-coding regions of the PPV genome, revealed four PPV mRNA transcripts from infected ST cells. Comparatively, RNA species from the structural protein coding region were actively transcribed in MDCK cells, but synthesis of RNA species from the nonstructural protein coding region was negligible. Immunoprecipitation of viral polypeptides revealed the three characteristic structural polypeptides, VP1, VP2, and VP3, along with the nonstructural polypeptide, NS-1 from ST cells. In contrast, neither viral structural or nonstructural polypeptides nor progeny virions were produced from MDCK cells. The data suggest that mechanisms controlling permissiveness of cells to PPV infection are associated with the level of viral DNA replication, RNA transcription, and viral antigen expression but not absorption to the cell surface.

Tissue distribution of bovid herpesvirus-4 in inoculated rabbits and its detection by DNA hybridization and polymerase chain reaction

A DNA hybridization technique, using the polyrepetitive EcoRI L-fragment of bovid herpesvirus (BHV-4) as a probe, was developed to determine virus distribution in the tissues of BHV-4-infected pregnant rabbits. The cloned fragment did not react with the DNA of rabbits or of other herpesviruses, e.g., infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, bovine herpes virus mammillitis, and pseudorabies viruses. The detection limit was 10(-13) g of DNA or approximately 600 genome equivalents of viral DNA, which indicates a level of sensitivity of one viral genome per 500 cells in our assay. Using conventional cell culture techniques, the virus was isolated from only one of fifteen infected rabbits and a few aborted fetuses. However, when organ culture or dot blot hybridization was used, BHV-4 was detected in all rabbits and their fetuses. Viral DNA was detected by DNA hybridization in spleen, ovary, uterus, lung, liver, salivary gland, lymph node, and placentome of adult rabbits and in a composite of fetal tissues. When polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used, the virus was detected in several organs (including the nervous tissues) that were found negative by other techniques. These results indicate that blot hybridization and PCR are more sensitive than conventional techniques for studying the pathogenesis of BHV-4 in animals. The data obtained by these methods suggest that BHV-4 may be maintained in infected rabbits in a latent state in a variety of tissues including the nervous system.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification for the detection of porcine parvovirus

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification method was developed and evaluated to detect porcine parvovirus (PPV). A pair of 20-base primers and an oligonucleotide probe were derived from the DNA sequences common to two isolates of PPV, NADL-8 and NADL-2. The primers flanked 118-bp nucleotides within the region coding for the major structural protein VP2. After DNA amplification of PPV replicative form (RF), a 158-bp fragment was detected in agarose gels. This amplified fragment was shown to be specific for PPV DNA after Southern transfer and hybridization to a 20-base internal probe. The amplified fragment also contained a single EcoRI cleavage site. Various conditions, such as number of cycles and annealing temperature, were examined to optimize the conditions for detecting viral DNAs from infected cell cultures and swine fetal tissues. Four different isolates of PPV, NADL-8, NADL-2, KBSH and Kresse, and two other viruses, canine parvovirus (CPV) and pseudorabies virus (PRV), were included to determine specificity of amplification. Slot blot hybridization with a radiolabeled probe was used to evaluate the sensitivity of PCR amplification. The optimized protocol was specific for PPV detecting equally all four strains of PPV, but failing to amplify CPV or PRV sequences. The PCR method could detect at least 100 fg of viral replicative form (RF) DNA or the equivalent of 1 PFU of infectious virus. The applications of this method include routine detection of PPV in clinical samples and as a contaminant in mammalian cell lines.

Establishment of transformed swine fibroblast cell lines using SV40 large T antigen

Swine testicle cell lines were established by transformation of primary swine testicle (PST) cells with an SV40 plasmid (pSV3-neo), which contains genes conferring resistance to neomycin and expressing SV40 large T antigen. Plasmid DNA was transfected into PST cells using a lipofection system. Two related plasmids, pSV2-neo and pSV5-neo, failed to induce transformed cells. Cells transformed with pSV3-neo formed single colonies that were resistant to the antibiotic, G418, and expressed large T antigen. Upon two cycles of cloning by endpoint dilution method, three transformed clones, designated transformed swine testicle (tST)-3, tST-14 and tST-18, were selected and characterized in regards to cell replication and susceptibility to swine viruses. The resultant clones were compared with a counterpart non-transformed ST cell line (ATCC-ST). The three tST cell lines showed longer or the same doubling times and higher saturation densities compared to ATCC-ST cells. These cells were free from a range of adventitious agents and supported the replication of porcine parvovirus (PPV), pseudorabies virus (PRV) and transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), comparable to ATCC-ST cells. All three cell lines have been maintained in continuous cultures for over 60 passages with no changes in growth characteristics. These findings indicate that lipofection with pSV3-neo is an efficient means for the introduction of exogenous DNA into porcine cells and for establishment of transformed immortalized cell lines.