npj Vaccines
(Jun 2021)
A cautionary perspective regarding the isolation and serial propagation of SARS-CoV-2 in Vero cells
Simon G. P. Funnell,
Babak Afrough,
John James Baczenas,
Neil Berry,
Kevin R. Bewley,
Rebecca Bradford,
Clint Florence,
Yann Le Duff,
Mark Lewis,
Ryan V. Moriarty,
Shelby L. O. Connor,
Karen L. Osman,
Steven Pullan,
Sujatha Rashid,
Kevin S. Richards,
Kimberly J. Stemple,
Ivana Knezevic
Affiliations
Simon G. P. Funnell
PHE Porton Down, National Infection Service, Public Health England
Babak Afrough
PHE Porton Down, National Infection Service, Public Health England
John James Baczenas
Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Neil Berry
Division of Infectious Disease Diagnostics, National Institute for Biological Standards and Control
Kevin R. Bewley
PHE Porton Down, National Infection Service, Public Health England
Rebecca Bradford
Biodefense and Emerging Infections Resources, NIH
Clint Florence
Office of Biodefense, Research Resources and Translational Research, Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH
Yann Le Duff
Division of Infectious Disease Diagnostics, National Institute for Biological Standards and Control
Mark Lewis
Office of Biodefense, Research Resources and Translational Research, Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH
Ryan V. Moriarty
Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Shelby L. O. Connor
Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Karen L. Osman
PHE Porton Down, National Infection Service, Public Health England
Steven Pullan
PHE Porton Down, National Infection Service, Public Health England
Sujatha Rashid
Biodefense and Emerging Infections Resources, NIH
Kevin S. Richards
PHE Porton Down, National Infection Service, Public Health England
Kimberly J. Stemple
Office of Biodefense, Research Resources and Translational Research, Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH
Ivana Knezevic
World Health Organization
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-021-00346-z
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6,
no. 1
pp.
1
– 5
Abstract
Read online
Abstract An array of SARS-CoV-2 virus variants have been isolated, propagated and used in in vitro assays, in vivo animal studies and human clinical trials. Observations of working stocks of SARS-CoV-2 suggest that sequential propagation in Vero cells leads to critical changes in the region of the furin cleavage site, which significantly reduce the value of the working stock for critical research studies. Serially propagating SARS-CoV-2 in Vero E6 cells leads to rapid increases in genetic variants while propagation in other cell lines (e.g. Vero/hSLAM) appears to mitigate this risk thereby improving the overall genetic stability of working stocks. From these observations, investigators are urged to monitor genetic variants carefully when propagating SARS-CoV-2 in Vero cells.
Published in npj Vaccines
ISSN
2059-0105 (Online)
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Country of publisher
United Kingdom
LCC subjects
Medicine: Internal medicine: Specialties of internal medicine: Immunologic diseases. Allergy
Medicine: Internal medicine: Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology. Including cancer and carcinogens
Website
https://www.nature.com/npjvaccines/
About the journal
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