Viral Susceptibility of a Human Carcinoma Cell (Strain KB)

Abstract

A human epithelioid carcinoma cell in tissue culture (strain KB) was susceptible to a number of viruses, including poliomyelitis, herpes simplex, vaccinia, a number of adenoidal-pharyngeal-conjunctival (APC) strains, lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCM) and encephalomyocarditis (EMC). Marked cytopathogenic effects were produced in 1-7 days, and viral multiplication was shown by complement fixation, tissue culture, or animal titration of the second passage material. Only partial and irregular cytopathogenic effects were obtained with mumps, yellow fever, and the SV1 strain of APC virus, but with apparently continuing elaboration of virus on repeated passage. Both an egg-adapted and a mouse strain of mumps virus lost their infectivity for eggs after several culture passages. Coxsackie virus (strain A9), influenza type B, one APC type, and GD VII had no cytopathogenic effect on this cell, and there was no evidence of viral multiplication. Rabies virus was cytopathogenic in the first passage only; and the harvest of the second passage was not infectious on intracerebral inoculation in mice.