Role of hemagglutinin cleavage and expression of M1 protein in replication of A/WS/33, A/PR/8/34, and WSN influenza viruses in mouse brain.

The combined presence of WSN gene segments 6 (neuraminidase), 7 (M1 and M2), and 8 (NS1 and NS2) in reassortants of WSN with A/Aichi/2/68 (H3N2) has been found by others to be necessary for full expression of neurovirulence in mice. We are examining the expression of the analogous three gene segments in brains of mice after intracerebral infection with non-neuroadapted strains A/WS/33 (WS) (from which WSN was derived) and A/PR/8/34 (PR8). Our aim is to determine possible mechanisms by which one or more of the five gene products may restrict replication of these strains in mouse brain cells to a single cycle, yielding noninfectious hemagglutinating particles (incomplete growth cycle). We found that minority subsets of such particles did produce plaques, provided they were activated by trypsin (analogous to other abortive systems producing virions with uncleaved HA), a step obviated for some WSN virions by indirect promotion of hemagglutinin cleavage by the neuraminidase of that strain. The percentage of such potentially infectious virions, relative to total hemagglutinating particles, was significantly lower in WS- or PR8-infected than in WSN-infected brains, suggesting possible defects in synthesis or function of M1 protein in the former. Cells in immunostained sections and appropriate bands in Western blots (immunoblots) of viral proteins electrophoretically separated from lysates of PR8-infected brains reacted with antibody to nucleoprotein but not to M1 protein. Either method revealed the presence of both proteins in WSN-infected brains. In contrast, Western blot analyses of particles concentrated from PR8-, WS-, or WSN-infected brains by hemadsorption, elution, and pelleting did reveal NP and M1 bands with comparable relative peroxidase-antiperoxidase staining intensities. The findings suggest that availability of M1 protein is a factor influencing the extent or rate of assembly of potentially infectious (i.e., trypsin-activated) progeny virions in mouse brains and that in this respect the two non-neurovirulent strains differ from WSN quantitatively rather than qualitatively.