Growth inhibition of herpes simplex virus-1 in the cells expressing abundant 2.0-kilobase latency-associated transcripts.

To elucidate the function of the latency-associated transcript (LAT) of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) in productive infection and latency, we established a cell line stably expressing LAT (V24 cells). V24 cells expressed 2.0-kilobase RNA that corresponds to the major species of LAT in mouse and human sensory ganglia. When the cells were infected with HSV-1 at a low multiplicity of infection, the amount of the progeny virus was much smaller in V24 cells than in a control cell line not expressing LAT. Inefficient growth of HSV-1 in V24 cells was also observed when viral replication was initiated by transfection with viral DNA.