The preparation of chicken kidney cell cultures for virus propagation.

Chicken kidney (CK) cell cultures have historically proved useful for the assay of a number of viruses including coronaviruses. A technique for the preparation of such cell cultures, using a combination of manual and trypsin disaggregation of kidneys dissected from 2- to 3-week-old birds is described. This technique routinely gives high cell yield together with high viability and the resultant adherent primary cultures can be used for virus growth and plaque formation.

The preparation of chicken tracheal organ cultures for virus isolation, propagation, and titration.

Chicken tracheal organ cultures (TOCs), comprising transverse sections of chick embryo trachea with beating cilia, have proved useful in the isolation of several respiratory viruses and as a viral assay system, using ciliostasis as the criterion for infection. A simple technique for the preparation of chicken tracheal organ cultures in glass test tubes, in which virus growth and ciliostasis can be readily observed, is described.

The preparation of chicken tracheal organ cultures for virus isolation, propagation, and titration.

Chicken tracheal organ cultures (TOCs), comprising transverse sections of chick embryo trachea with beating cilia, have proved useful in the isolation of several respiratory viruses and as a viral assay system, using ciliostasis as the criterion for infection. A simple technique for the preparation of chicken tracheal organ cultures in glass test tubes, in which virus growth and ciliostasis can be readily observed, is described.

Scrapie strains maintain biological phenotypes on propagation in a cell line in culture.

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and its human equivalent, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), are caused by the same strain of infectious agent, which is similar to, but distinct from, >20 strains of their sheep scrapie homologue. A better understanding of the molecular strain determinants could be obtained from cells in monoculture than from whole animal studies where different cell targeting is commonly a strain-related feature. Although a few cell types can be infected with different strains, the phenotypes of the emergent strains have not been studied.

Screening Congo Red and its analogues for their ability to prevent the formation of PrP-res in scrapie-infected cells.

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are incurable, fatal diseases. The dye Congo Red (CR) can cure cells infected with agents of the sheep TSE, scrapie, but is not used as a therapeutic or prophylactic agent in vivo, as its effects are small, possibly due to low blood-brain barrier permeability, and complicated by its intrinsic carcinogenicity. In this paper, the development is described of a structure-activity profile for CR by testing a series of analogues of this dye for their ability to inhibit the formation of the protease-resistant prion protein, PrP-res, a molecular marker for the infectious agent, in the scrapie-infected, SMB cell line.