Growth Characteristics and Non-Structural Protein 1 (NS1) Expression of Four Dengue Virus Serotypes in Various Cell Lines

Abstract

In vitro dengue research has been routinely used to study the pathogenesis of dengue infection. The little information about the growth characteristics of dengue viruses in various cell lines model may become the limiting factor of dengue research. Dengue virus growth characterization was conducted to determine the growth kinetics of dengue viruses in various cell lines namely the C6/36, Vero76, MDCK, 293, HepG2, and A549 cell lines. Growth characteristic of dengue virus in each cell line were measured by looking at the rateof application, NS1 protein expression, and detection of dengue virus genome. The replication kinetic assay indicated the difference growth characteristics of each serotype of dengue virus in each cell line, with relatively higher growth was observed in A549 cell line compared to other cell lines. ELISA results showed an increased expression of NS1 protein in A549 cell in parallel with increasing viral titer. The presence of dengue virus RNA genome in A549 cells was confirmed using RT-PCR assay. This study observed the ability of A549 human cell line to support the growth of all dengue virus serotypes and this cell line could be used as an alternative mammalian cell line for the in vitro study of dengue virus infections.