BackgroundSome cell-adapted strains of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) can utilize heparan sulfate (HS) as a receptor to facilitate viral infection in cultured cells. A number of independent sites on the capsid that might be involved in FMDV-HS interaction have been studied. However, the previously reported residues do not adequately explain HS-dependent infection of two cell-adapted PanAsia-1 strains (O/Tibet/CHA/6/99tc and O/Fujian/CHA/9/99tc) of FMDV serotype O.To identify the molecular determinant(s) for the interaction of O/Tibet/CHA/6/99tc and O/Fujian/CHA/9/99tc with HS receptor, several chimeric viruses and site-directed mutants were generated by using an infectious cDNA of a non-HS-utilizing rescued virus (Cathay topotype) as the genomic backbone. Phenotypic properties of these viruses were determined by plaque assays and virus adsorption and penetration assays in cultured cells.ResultsOnly two of the rescued viruses encoding VP0 of O/Tibet/CHA/6/99tc or VP1 of O/Fujian/CHA/9/99tc formed plaques on wild-type Chinese hamster ovary (WT-CHO; HS+) cells, but not on HS-negative pgsD-677 cells. The formation of plaques by these two chimeric viruses on WT-CHO cells could be abolished by the introduction of single amino acid mutations Gln-2080 → Leu in VP2 of O/Tibet/CHA/6/99tc and Lys-1083 → Glu in VP1 of O/Fujian/CHA/9/99tc, respectively. Nonetheless, the introduced mutation Leu-2080 → Gln in VP2 of O/Fujian/CHA/9/99tc for the construction of expectant recombinant plasmid led to non-infectious progeny virus in baby hamster kidney 21 (BHK-21) cells, and the site-directed mutant encoding Glu-1083 → Lys in VP1 of O/Tibet/CHA/6/99tc did not acquire the ability to produce plaques on WT-CHO cells.Significant differences in the inhibition of the infectivity of four HS-utilizing viruses by heparin and RGD-containing peptide were observed in BHK-21 cells.Interestingly, the chimeric virus encoding VP0 of O/Fujian/CHA/9/99tc, and the site-directed mutant encoding Gln-2080 → Leu in VP2 of O/Tibet/CHA/6/99tc could bind to HS, but there was no expression of the 3A protein of these two viruses in WT-CHO cells.ConclusionThe results suggest that the cooperation of certain specific amino acid residues in the capsid proteins of these two cell-adapted PanAsia-1 strains is essential for viral infectivity, the heparin affinity and the capability on FMDV-HS interaction.

BackgroundFoot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is the most economically important and highly contagious disease of cloven-hoofed animals worldwide. Control of the disease has been mainly based on large-scale vaccinations with whole-virus inactivated vaccines. In recent years, a series of outbreaks of type O FMD occurred in China (including Chinese Taipei, Chinese Hong Kong) posed a tremendous threat to Chinese animal husbandry. Its causative agent, type O FMDV, has evolved into three topotypes (East–South Asia (ME-SA), Southeast Asia (SEA), Cathay (CHY)) in these regions, which represents an important obstacle to disease control. The available FMD vaccine in China shows generally good protection against ME-SA and SEA topotype viruses infection, but affords insufficient protection against some variants of the CHY topotype. Therefore, the choice of a new vaccine strain is of fundamental importance.ResultsThe present study describes the generation of a full-length infectious cDNA clone of FMDV vaccine strain and a genetically modified virus with some amino acid substitutions in antigenic sites 1, 3, and 4, based on the established infectious clone. The recombinant viruses had similar growth properties to the wild O/HN/CHA/93 virus. All swine immunized with inactivated vaccine prepared from the O/HN/CHA/93 were fully protected from challenge with the viruses of ME-SA and SEA topotypes and partially protected against challenge with the virus of CHY topotype at 28 days post-immunization. In contrast, the swine inoculated with the genetically modified vaccine were completely protected from the infection of viruses of the three topotypes.ConclusionsSome amino acid substitutions in the FMDV vaccine strain genome did not have an effect on the ability of viral replication in vitro. The vaccine prepared from genetically modified FMDV by reverse genetics significantly improved the protective efficacy to the variant of the CHY topotype, compared with the wild O/HN/CHA/93 virus. Thus, the full-length cDNA clone of FMDV can be a useful tool to develop genetically engineered FMDV vaccine candidates to help control porcinophilic FMD epidemics in China.

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