Expression of the glycoprotein of viral haemorrhagic septicaemia virus (VHSV) on the surface of the fish cell line RTG-P1 induces type 1 interferon expression in neighbouring cells

In the present study using a luciferase/Mx promoter reporter system, it was shown that the rainbow trout gonad cell line (RTG-P1), a fibroblastic cell line, produces IFN when transfected with a plasmid encoding the glycoprotein of VHSV but not with plasmid vector alone. Only a small percentage of the cells expressed the G protein on the surface membrane as indicated by immunostaining of transfected cells. When transfection was performed in the presence of monoclonal antibodies (Mab) to the glycoprotein, the production of interferon mRNA transcripts was reduced by over 50%. This indicates that the surface expression of G protein was the major mechanism of interferon induction and that most of the interferon was being expressed by cells neighbouring the transfected cells.