The science is beyond the scope of this blog, but this caught our eye:
“Porcine circovirus type 1 (PCV1), a small DNA virus in pigs, recently gained its notoriety when commercial human rotavirus vaccines were discovered to be contaminated by infectious PCV1.”
That’s not right: it was notorious before, but the range of worries increased when it was found in two human vaccines for use in children a couple of years ago.
Recently, there has been caustic comment over Bill Gates and the British government combining to buy huge quantities of these vaccines from pharmaceutical companies to donate to the third world.
Nobody wants to stop the provision of vaccines to needy vulnerable children.
But porcine circovirus has been repeatedly underestimated and epidemics in pigs the subject of blatant cover-ups and disinformation in the United Kingdom and elsewhere for many years.
The abstract and full report, with explanatory material, are available here
Short communication
Productive infection of human hepatocellular carcinoma cells by porcine circovirus type 1
References and further reading may be available for this article. To view references and further reading you must purchase this article.
a Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1981 Kraft Drive, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0913, United States
Received 8 February 2011;
revised 23 June 2011; accepted 25 June 2011.
Available online 8 July 2011.
Abstract
Porcine circovirus type 1 (PCV1), a small DNA virus in pigs, recently gained its notoriety when commercial human rotavirus vaccines were discovered to be contaminated by infectious PCV1. Here we report, for the first time, definitive evidence of productive PCV1 infection in a subclone of human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line (Huh-7, subclone 10-3). Infectious virus was detected in the lysates of infected Huh-7 cells by immunofluorescent assay (IFA) and can be serially passaged in Huh-7-S10-3 cells. The growth kinetic of PCV1 in Huh-7-S10-3 cells was determined in a one-step growth curve using IFA and a quantitative PCR assay. PCV1 achieved a lower infectious titer in Huh-7-S10-3 human cells compared to the titer normally achieved in porcine PK-15 cells from published studies. While the direct relevance to vaccine safety of PCV1 growth in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells is unclear, these data should be considered in further evaluation of vaccines and other products that could contain infectious PCV1.
Keywords: Porcine circovirus type 1 (PCV1); Vaccine contamination; Productive PCV1 infection; Human hepatocellular carcinoma cells
