Antiviral activity of recombinant porcine interferon-α against porcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus in pk-15 cells

Abstract

A recombinant porcine interferon alpha (rPoIFN-α) has been developed and patented previously (Chinese patent number ZL200810020180.4). In the current study, we investigated the inhibitory effects of the rPoIFN-α on the propagation of porcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) at different doses in porcine kidney cell line (PK-15). To quantitatively determine the inhibition of viral growth by rPoIFN-α, TCID50 assay, plaque formation assay, real-time qRT-PCR, western blot and immunofluorescence assay were adopted to evaluate the changes of viral infectious particles, viral genome copy numbers and viral protein expression levels respectively. The results demonstrated that all the three batches of the rPoIFN-α tested inhibited TGEVinduced cytopathic effect in PK-15 cells with very similar potency. rPoIFN-α inhibited TGEV proliferation more strongly than human IFN-α product. The inhibitory activity of rPoIFN-α on TGEV growth in culture was dose dependent, and the activity was gradually reduced with the decreasing of the concentration of rPoIFN-α.

Keywords

• recombinant porcine interferon-α (rpoifn-α)
• porcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus (tgev)
• immunofluorescence assay