Defective interfering particles from poliovirus vaccine and vaccine reference strains

Defective interfering (DI) viral particles have been found to be associated with attenuated oral poliovirus vaccine and also with poliovirus vaccine reference strains. The DI particles replicate in low-passage human fibroblastic cells, the BSC-1 line of monkey kidney cells as well as in HeLa cells. DI particles of the attenuated polioviruses are generated after relatively few serial, high multiplicity passages of cloned, DI-free vaccine virus, whereas virulent strains of poliovirus generate a significant number of DI only after a large number of passages.