Inhibition of feline leukemia virus replication by human leukocyte interferon.

The replication of feline leukemia virus (FeLV) is inhibited by treatment of cat cell cultures with crude human leukocyte interferon (HuIFN-alpha) as evidenced by titration of the infectious progeny. The inhibition can be demonstrated in three different cell lines in which the production of hemagglutinin by encephalomyocarditis (EMC) virus, and plaque formation by vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) are also inhibited by the HuIFN-alpha. The dose dependency of the inhibition of EMC virus by the HuIFN-alpha is similar to that obtained with feline interferon in each of the three cell lines. VSV and EMC virus are less than 10 times more sensitive than FeLV to the inhibitory action of HuIFN-alpha if responses to a single interferon treatment are compared for each of the viruses tested in the most sensitive cell line, FEA. The interferon effect on FeLV is more pronounced when it is added within one day after the inoculation of the cells rather than applied before cell infection. The induction of focus formation by FeLV can also be inhibited by HuIFN-alpha in cat cells (CCC-81) which contain the murine sarcoma virus genome.