The influence of higher temperature on Dengue-2 virus infected C6/36 mosquito cell line

Dengue-2 virus infection of C6/36 cells was studied at 28 and 37 °C. In infected cells maintained at 28 °C, syncytial development was seen on day 4 postinfection, whereas at 37 °C, extensive syncytial development was seen by 32 h. Extracellular virus titre was found to correlate with the cytopathic changes. Nine Dengue-2 virus specified proteins were observed in polyacrylamide analyses of cytoplasmic extracts of C6/36 infected cells. All the proteins were observed, although in varied intensities by 32 h postinoculation at 37 °C and only on day 4 postinoculation at 28 °C. The GP60 glycoprotein appeared at 32 h postinfection when the cells were maintained at 37 °C and became prominent only on day 5 at 28 °C. The results revealed that a higher temperature accelerated the onset of cytopathic effects, hastened the development of virus specified proteins, and also enhanced the titre of extracellular infectious virus. The importance of the accumulation of the envelope protein GP60 for the development of CPE was indicated.