Pretreatment of hamster cells with phenethyl alcohol alters cell surface glycoproteins and inhibits vesicular stomatitis virus growth

Abstract

Chinese hamster ovary cells cultured in the presence of phenethyl alcohol exhibit obvious changes in cell surface galactose and galactosamine glycoproteins as determined by the galactose-oxidase[³H]borohydride technique and SDS gel electrophoresis. Cells pretreated with phenethyl alcohol (drug was removed before infection) were not as effective as hosts for vesicular stomatitis virus as untreated cultures. A minimum pretreatment time with 0.1% phenethyl alcohol of about 8 h was required before a reduction in virus growth was observed. It is proposed that phenethyl alcohol pretreatment as outlined in this report leads to a modification of the host cellular membrane resulting in the inhibition of virus replication.