No abstract

SUMMARYThe anticholinergic anti-parkinsonism drug Norakin R is an inhibitor of influenza virus multiplication. By crossing a Norakin-resistant variant of fowl plague virus (FPV) strain Weybridge with the sensitive FPV/Rostock/34 wild-type virus, Norakinresistant recombinants were obtained. Analyses of the gene composition showed that all Norakin-resistant recombinants had inherited their haemagglutinin gene from the Norakin-resistant parent strain. The majority of the recombinants had received all the other gene segments from the sensitive parent strain. Norakin was shown to inhibit red blood cell lysis induced either by purified virions or by the haemagglutinin of a sensitive FPV strain at low pH, but failed to affect the Norakin-resistant FPV variant. No aggregation of autoliposomes containing the haemagglutinin of a sensitive FPV strain or digestion of the HA1 subunit of haemagglutinin by trypsin occurred in the presence of Norakin at acid pH. The data suggest that the haemagglutinin of FPV is the target for the antiviral activity of Norakin, which acts by inhibiting the conformational change in the haemagglutinin at acid pH important for lysis.

Persistent measles virus infection of human HEp-2 or L-41 cells was accompanied by pronounced structural and functional changes of isolated intracellular viral nucleocapsids (NCs). The bulk of persistent NCs possessed altered conformation and a "string-of-beads" appearance, contained substantial amounts of subgenomic size RNAs, exhibited reduced transcriptase activity in vitro and lacked infectivity on transfection of susceptible cells. Immunogold staining revealed negligible binding of anti-P protein monoclonal antibodies to the "string-of-beads" type NCs, thus suggesting their non-functional state.

No abstract

SUMMARYA fowl plague virus (FPV) temperature-sensitive mutant, ts 303/1 having a ts mutation in gene 7 coding for the matrix (M) protein has been obtained. The mutant induced synthesis of virus-specific RNA and polypeptides as well as ribonuclear protein (RNP) formation in cells under non-permissive conditions; however, haemagglutinin cleavage was reduced, functionally active haemagglutinin and neuraminidase were absent and virions were not formed. In mutant-infected cells at 36 °C haemagglutinin cleavage was also reduced and virions formed had an altered NP : M ratio as well as a decreased haemagglutinin content. A population of viri0ns formed under these conditions was heterogeneous both in morphology and in buoyant density. The data obtained suggest that a mutation in the M proteins of orthomyxoviruses can affect processing of the haemagglutinin and impair final stages of virion morphogenesis.