A Continuous Bovine Kidney Cell Line Constitutively Expressing Bovine αVβ6 Integrin Has Increased Susceptibility to Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a worldwide problem limiting the trade of animals and their products from affected countries. The rapid isolation, serotyping, and vaccine matching of FMD virus from disease outbreaks is critical for enabling the implementation of effective vaccination programs and to stop the spread of infection during outbreaks. Some primary cells have been shown to be highly susceptible to most strains of FMD virus (FMDV) but are difficult and expensive to prepare and maintain. Since the alpha(V)beta(6) integrin is a principal receptor for FMDV, we transduced a bovine kidney cell line to stably express both the alpha(V) and beta(6) bovine integrin subunits. This stable cell line (LFBK-alpha(V)beta(6)) showed beta(6) expression and enhanced susceptibility to FMDV infection for >= 100 cell passages. LFBK-alpha(V)beta(6) cells were highly sensitive for detecting all serotypes of FMDV from experimentally infected animals, including the porcinophilic FMDV strain O/TAW/97. In comparison to other cell types that are currently used for virus isolation, LFBK-alpha(V)beta(6) cells were more effective at detecting FMDV in clinical samples, supporting their use as a more sensitive tool for virus isolation.