Canine distemper virus isolated from a monkey efficiently replicates on Vero cells expressing non-human primate SLAM receptors but not human SLAM receptor

Background In 2008, an outbreak of canine distemper virus (CDV) infection in monkeys was reported in China. We isolated CDV strain (subsequently named Monkey-BJ01-DV) from lung tissue obtained from a rhesus monkey that died in this outbreak. We evaluated the ability of this virus on Vero cells expressing SLAM receptors from dog, monkey and human origin, and analyzed the H gene of Monkey-BJ01-DV with other strains. Results The Monkey-BJ01-DV isolate replicated to the highest titer on Vero cells expressing dog-origin SLAM (10 5.2±0.2 TCID 50 /ml) and monkey-origin SLAM (10 5.4±0.1 TCID 50 /ml), but achieved markedly lower titers on human-origin SLAM cells (10 3.3±0.3 TCID 50 /ml). Phylogenetic analysis of the full-length H gene showed that Monkey-BJ01-DV was highly related to other CDV strains obtained during recent CDV epidemics among species of the Canidae family in China, and these Monkey strains CDV (Monkey-BJ01-DV, CYN07-dV, Monkey-KM-01) possessed a number of amino acid specific substitutions (E276V, Q392R, D435Y and I542F) compared to the H protein of CDV epidemic in other animals at the same period. Conclusions Our results suggested that the monkey origin-CDV-H protein could possess specific substitutions to adapt to the new host. Monkey-BJ01-DV can efficiently use monkey- and dog-origin SLAM to infect and replicate in host cells, but further adaptation may be required for efficient replication in host cells expressing the human SLAM receptor.