Enteric viruses like norovirus, rotavirus and astrovirus mainly transmit through fecal-oral route by ingestion of contaminated food and water and productively replicate in the intestines. Recently, researchers at National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) identified a second route of enteric viral transmission by demonstrating that these viruses also productively and persistently infect salivary glands, reaching titers comparable to that in intestines. To effectively propagate the human norovirus, researches also developed cell lines derived from human salivary gland. The two SV40 transformed adherent cell lines were adapted to grow in serum-free conditions and express acinar (NS-SV-TT-AC) and ductal (NS-SV-TT-DC ) characteristics respectively. Unlike conventional methods for propagating human norovirus, these cells don’t require special incubation conditions and have been extensively characterized. Importantly, these cell lines are permissive to human norovirus, and would also be useful in investigating the virus-host cell interactions.

NHLBI is seeking parties to non-exclusively license the NS-SV-TT-AC and NS-SV-TT-DC human salivary gland cell lines.