The hemagglutinin of recent measles virus isolates induces cell fusion in a marmoset cell line, but not in other CD46-positive human and monkey cell lines, when expressed together with the F protein.

Measles virus (MV) is efficiently isolated from patients with measles by using B95a cells, a marmoset B cell line. Recent wild-type MV strains isolated using B95a cells did not produce cytopathic effects in any of CD46+ primate cell lines examined (except B95a cells), nor did they induce downregulation of CD46. Transfection of the hemagglutinin (H) and fusion (F) genes of the Edmonston strain of MV produced syncytia in HeLa, Cos and B95a cells. By contrast, the expression of the H gene from the two wild-type strains, together with the F gene of the Edmonston strain, resulted in syncytium production in B95a cells, but not in HeLa and Cos cells. Cocultivation of Cos cells expressing the wild-type H protein and the Edmonston strain F protein with B95a cells, but not with HeLa, Jurkat or BJAB cells, generated large syncytia. The results suggest that these recent MV isolates may use a molecule other than CD46 as the cellular receptor or require another coreceptor to infect cells.