Interferon-treated cells release vesicular stomatitis virus particles lacking glycoprotein spikes: correlation with biochemical data.

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Abstract
A reduction to 1/30th-1/100th of the original number of infectious particles occurred in the infectious vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) released from L [mouse fibroblast] cells treated with 10 or 30 reference units of interferon/ml. Virus particle production in these cultures, as measured by VSV particle-associated viral RNA, virus nucleocapsid protein and viral transcriptase, was inhibited by less than 10%. There was a significant reduction in glycoprotein and membrane protein of VSV particles released from interferon-treated cells. Evidence supporting the deficiency of glycoprotein in VSV released from interferon-treated cells was derived from EM studies. Under conditions where glycoprotein spikes or projections were clearly detectable on the surface of VSV released from cells not treated with interferon, very few spikes were observed on VSV released from interferon-treated cells. Thus interferon-treated cells produced VSV particles with low infectivity and this low infectivity may be related to the reduced amount of glycoprotein and membrane protein incorporated into such particles.