Immunodeficient NSG (NOD/LtSz-scid/IL2Rγnull) mice were purchased from Jackson labs (catalog number: 005557). Mononuclear cells (CBMCs) were isolated from fresh umbilical human cord blood (Umbilical Cord Blood Collection Program, UC Davis Health System) using Ficoll-Paque Premium solution (GE healthcare). CBMCs were infected with either P3HR1, B95.8 or AG876 viruses in vitro for 1.5 hours at 37°C. A minimum of 10 million cells were injected intraperitoneally into 6- to 10- week-old NSG mice which were age-matched. Mice were kept for a maximum of 92 days after injection of cord blood or were sacrificed if they become moribund prior to day 92. P3HR1 studies were performed using four different donors. In general, mice received 20,000 infectious units of the AG876 and B95.8 viruses (a dose sufficient to induce tumors in essentially 100% of infected animals [43 (link),47 (link)]. Animals infected with the P3HR1 virus received 500,000 to 1 million infectious units; lower amounts of virus were not examined due to the expense of the model (and no difference was observed in the ability of different virus doses to cause tumors). P3HR1 was not tittered in three of the infected mice (S1 Table).
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