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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

Evaluation of an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of feline lentivirus-reactive antibodies in wild felids, employing a puma lentivirus-derived synthetic peptide antigen.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using a puma lentivirus-derived synthetic peptide as coating antigen was evaluated as a diagnostic test for infection with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) or related lentiviruses in free-ranging lions. The sensitivity and specificity of the ELISA was determined using two approaches. In the first approach, the results were standardized according to certain statistical criteria, and in the second, the puma lentivirus western blot was used as the gold standard. The sensitivity of the test when compared with the standardized results was 85.4% and the specificity 100%. The sensitivity of the test when using the western blot as the gold standard was 78.6% and the specificity 100%. The test would therefore be well-suited to the screening of populations of wild felids in which FIV or related lentiviruses are endemic. The results also indicate that in spite of genetic divergence between lentiviruses isolated from Panthera and Felis spp., puma lentivirus-derived antigens can be used in immunoassays for the detection of antibodies in Panthera spp. reactive to FIV or related lentiviruses. The results also indicate that the lion population in the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve, South Africa is lentivirus negative.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Primate and feline lentivirus vector RNA packaging and propagation by heterologous lentivirus virions.

Development of safe and effective gene transfer systems is critical to the success of gene therapy protocols for human diseases. Currently, several primate lentivirus-based gene transfer systems, such as those based on human and simian immunodeficiency viruses (HIV/SIV), are being tested; however, their use in humans raises safety concerns, such as the generation of replication-competent viruses through recombination with related endogenous retroviruses or retrovirus-like elements. Due to the greater phylogenetic distance from primate lentiviruses, feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is becoming the lentivirus of choice for human gene transfer systems. However, the safety of FIV-based vector systems has not been tested experimentally. Since lentiviruses such as HIV-1 and SIV have been shown to cross-package their RNA genomes, we tested the ability of FIV RNA to get cross-packaged into primate lentivirus particles such as HIV-1 and SIV, as well as a nonlentiviral retrovirus such as Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (MPMV), and vice versa. Our results reveal that FIV RNA can be cross-packaged by primate lentivirus particles such as HIV-1 and SIV and vice versa; however, a nonlentivirus particle such as MPMV is unable to package FIV RNA. Interestingly, FIV particles can package MPMV RNA but cannot propagate the vector RNA further for other steps of the retrovirus life cycle. These findings reveal that diverse retroviruses are functionally more similar than originally thought and suggest that upon coinfection of the same host, cross- or copackaging may allow distinct retroviruses to generate chimeric variants with unknown pathogenic potential.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Nucleotide sequence analysis of SA-OMVV, a visna-related ovine lentivirus: phylogenetic history of lentiviruses.

The nucleotide sequence analysis of the visna-related South African Ovine Maedi Visna virus (SA-OMVV) demonstrates extensive genetic polymorphism among ovine lentiviruses. Differences between visna virus and SA-OMVV proteins range from 8.5 to 35% mismatched amino acids. Moreover, there is a new open reading frame (orf W) in the central part of the genome. A phylogenetic history calibrated by the divergence and isolation dates of these two ovine lentiviruses shows that radiation of the lentiviridae family is a recent event. Visna virus and SA-OMVV evolved independent of each other for about 42 years. The inferred molecular clock was used to calculate the minimal time elapsed since the divergence of some lentiviruses: 93 years for ovine and caprine lentiviruses, 430 years for ungulate and primate lentiviruses, and roughly 200 years for HIV-1, HIV-2, and SIVAGM. BRU, ELI, and MAL HIV-1 isolates diverged in the early 1960s.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1988

Lentivirus-induced lymphoproliferative disease. Comparative pathogenicity of phenotypically distinct ovine lentivirus strains.

For investigation of the pathogenicity of lentivirus strains, which have distinctly different cytopathic phenotypes in synovial membrane cell culture, plaque-purified, lytic, and nonlytic ovine lentivirus (OvLV) isolates were inoculated intratracheally into two groups of neonatal lambs. Twelve lambs were inoculated with a lytic OvLV isolate and 3 lambs each with two nonlytic OvLV isolates. Five control lambs were inoculated with either virus-free medium or were left uninoculated. In 8 of 12 lambs inoculated with a lytic OvLV isolate mild to severe lesions of lymphoid interstitial pneumonia (LIP) and pulmonary lymphoid hyperplasia developed, 6 of 12 lambs had lesions of pulmonary lymph node follicular hyperplasia, 3 of 9 female lambs had lesions of lymphoproliferative mastitis, 3 of 10 lambs had lesions of lymphocytic/plasmacytic synovitis, and 3 lambs had no lesions. In 3 of 6 lambs inoculated with nonlytic OvLV isolates only mild LIP lesions developed, without concurrent mammary gland or joint lesions. Bronchoalveolar lavage samples from OvLV-diseased lambs contained on average 1.5-fold more numbers of total leukocytes, and 4-fold more numbers of lymphocytes, compared with bronchoalveolar lavage samples of normal lambs. Monoclonal antibodies to ovine lymphocyte surface markers showed that the SBU-T8+ lymphocyte (CD 8 equivalent) was the predominant lymphocyte subset (mean of 65% of total lavaged lymphocytes) in bronchoalveolar lavage samples of 3 diseased lambs. Ovine lentivirus was reisolated from multiple tissues of both groups of OvLV-inoculated lambs, but the percentage of individual tissues infected was greater in lambs inoculated with the lytic viral isolate. Control lambs had no lesions and failed to produce OvLV-specific antibodies or yield OvLV from tissues. All OvLV-inoculated lambs produced either low or undetectable serum virus neutralizing antibodies. In contrast, lambs inoculated with either lytic or nonlytic OvLV produced precipitating antibodies to OvLV glycoprotein and group-specific protein. However, initial detection of precipitating antibodies to OvLV glycoprotein was earlier (mean, 5.8 weeks after inoculation) in OvLV-infected lambs in which severe lymphoproliferative disease developed and delayed (mean, 10.2 weeks after inoculation) in OvLV-infected lambs with mild or no lesions. Together, these results suggest that lentivirus isolates produced disease in a virus strain-dependent manner and suggest that humoral immune responses against OvLV failed to prevent lesion development in lentivirus-infected lambs.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Nucleotide sequence analysis of puma lentivirus (PLV-14): genomic organization and relationship to other lentiviruses.

The complete nucleotide sequence of an isolate of puma lentivirus (PLV-14) was obtained by an inverse polymerase chain reaction (I-PCR) technique and confirmed by conventional PCR. Both methods were used to amplify overlapping regions of proviral DNA, for cloning and sequencing, from genomic DNA isolated from PLV-14 infected Florida puma (Felis concolor coryi) peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). The provirus has a total length of 9100 nucleotides and the genomic organization of presumed protein coding regions are similar to those seen in other members of the lentivirus family, i.e., three large open reading frames gag, pol, and env as well as smaller intergenic regions that apparently encode regulatory proteins vif and 3' rev by positional and sequence similarity to those seen in other lentiviruses. Two additional open reading frames were identified in the env region and their function (if any) is unknown. The length of the PLV-14 long terminal repeat (LTR) was found to be shorter than the LTRs of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). The sequence homology between PLV-14 and other lentiviruses demonstrates that PLV-14 is most closely related to FIV from domestic cats. However, the extent of sequence divergence of each retroviral gene segment is large (e.g., percentage sequence similarity between FIV and PLV-14 env is 8% amino acid and 37% nucleotide similarity), indicating relatively ancient divergence of these feline lentiviral genomes.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1986

Isolation of a lentivirus from a macaque with lymphoma: comparison with HTLV-III/LAV and other lentiviruses.

A retrovirus has been isolated on the human T-cell line HuT 78 after cocultivation of a lymph node from a pig-tailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina) that had died with malignant lymphoma in 1982 at the University of Washington primate center. This isolate, designated MnIV (WPRC-1) (M. nemestrina immunodeficiency virus, Washington Primate Research Center) shows the characteristic morphology of a lentivirus and replicates to high titers in various lymphocyte lines of human and primate origin. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of purified MnIV revealed multiple bands of structural proteins, including a major viral gag protein of 28 kilodaltons, that did not comigrate with the viral proteins of a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV [FRE-1]) that was also isolated on HuT 78 cells. The relatedness of MnIV to other lentiviruses (HTLV-III/LAV, EIAV, and visna) was examined in radioimmunoassays, by immunoblot techniques, and by N-terminal amino acid sequence analysis of the viral p28 gag protein. The immunoassays revealed cross-reactivity only between MnIV p28 and HTLV-III/LAV p24, and sequence analysis showed that 14 of the 24 N-terminal residues of MnIV p28 and HTLV-III/LAV p24 are identical. These results indicate that MnIV belongs to the same lentivirus family as HTLV-III/LAV but is only partially related to these human acquired immune deficiency syndrome retroviruses.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1992

Conservation of amino-acid sequence motifs in lentivirus Vif proteins.

The nonstructural/regulatory genes of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and other lentiviruses are believed to play an important role in the replication and pathogenesis of these viruses. In HIV-1 and other lentiviruses, the vif (viral infectivity factor) open reading frame (ORF) (also termed sor or Q in some lentivirus genomes) is located in the central region, overlapping the 3' end of the pol ORF, but in a different reading frame. Among the lentiviruses, only equine infectious anemia virus lacks a vif ORF. The predicted Vif protein sequences from 38 lentiviruses were analyzed for the presence of global and local sequence similarity. The Vif proteins of closely related lentiviruses are highly conserved (HIV-1HXB2:HIV-1mn = 91% identity), while those of more distantly related lentirviruses have diverged significantly (HIV-1HXB2:simian immunodeficiency virusmax = 30% identity). A search for local sequence similarity revealed that a unifying feature of predicted lentivirus Vif proteins is the presence of at least one of two short, highly conserved sequence motifs, SL(I/V)X4YX9Y and SLQXLA. SLQXLA was present in 34 of 38 lentiviruses examined, while the remaining four lentiviruses had one (three viruses) or two (one virus) substitutions in this motif (of five total substitutions, three were conservative changes). The SL(I/V)X4YX9Y motif was found only in primate lentiviruses and in bovine immunodeficiency-like virus. Based on these findings, we suggest that the locus designation vif be used to denote all lentivirus ORFs previously called vif, Q, or sor.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1988

Spontaneous interferon production by pulmonary leukocytes is associated with lentivirus-induced lymphoid interstitial pneumonia.

Ovine lentiviruses share genome sequence, structural features, and replicative mechanisms with HIV, the etiologic agent of AIDS. A lamb model of lentivirus-induced lymphoid interstitial pneumonia, comparable to lymphoid interstitial pneumonia associated with pediatric AIDS, was used to investigate production of leukocyte-soluble mediators. Lentivirus-infected lambs and adult sheep with severe lymphoid interstitial pneumonia had significantly elevated levels of spontaneous interferon (IFN) production from pulmonary leukocytes compared with ovine lentiviruses-infected animals with mild or no lesions of lymphoid interstitial pneumonia or non-infected controls. However, peripheral blood mononuclear cells from lentivirus-infected lambs did not spontaneously release significant amounts of IFN. IFN production by pulmonary lymph node lymphocytes was enhanced in the presence of lentivirus-infected alveolar macrophages. Animals with lentivirus-induced disease and spontaneous IFN production had enhanced virus replication within tissues. The ovine lentiviruses-induced IFN had a m.w. of between 25,000 and 35,000 and was resistant to freeze/thawing procedures. The IFN activity was sensitive to trypsin and stable to low pH and heat. IFN with similar physical and biochemical properties was produced when ovine lentiviruses was added to control leukocyte cultures. IL-2 and PGE2 production and responses to mitogen by pulmonary lymph node lymphocytes of lentivirus-diseased lambs were not statistically different from control animals. Increased local production of IFN in lentivirus-infected host tissues may serve to accelerate the entry of leukocytes into virus-induced lesions promoting cell-mediated tissue damage and also provide increased numbers of cells for virus replication.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Molecular biology and pathogenesis of animal lentivirus infections.

Lentiviruses are a subfamily of retroviruses that are characterized by long incubation periods between infection of the host and the manifestation of clinical disease. Human immunodeficiency virus type 1, the causative agent of AIDS, is the most widely studied lentivirus. However, the lentiviruses that infect sheep, goats, and horses were identified and studied prior to the emergence of human immunodeficiency virus type 1. These and other animal lentiviruses provide important systems in which to investigate the molecular pathogenesis of this family of viruses. This review will focus on two animal lentivirus models: the ovine lentivirus visna virus; and the simian lentivirus, simian immunodeficiency virus. These animal lentiviruses have been used to examine, in particular, the pathogenesis of lentivirus-induced central nervous system disease as models for humans with AIDS as well as other chronic diseases.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

[Establishment of lentivirus-mediated system of double suicide genes and its killing effects on K562 cells].

To establish lentivirus-mediated system of double suicide genes and explore its killing effects on K562 cells, lentivirus transfer vector for double suicide genes was constructed using molecular methods, three plasmids of lentivirus gene transfer vector system were transferred into packaging cell line 293T using lipofectine method, the transfer effect was observed through fluorescence microscopy, the lentivirus particles were observed by means of electron microscopy. High titer of lentivirus was harvested from the supernatant of virus-producing cell culture and concentrated by high-speed centrifugation with Poly-L-Lysine (PLL). The K562 cells were infected with the concentrated supernatant containing the virus with the double suicide genes. Fluorescence microscopy and RT- PCR confirmed the integration and expression of extraneous gene. The cytotoxicity to these transgenic cells treated with 5-FC and GCV was measured by MTT assays. The growth inhibition ratio (GIR) of cells and inhibition concentration 50 (IC(50)) were counted. After administration of GCV and 5-FC, the changes of those cells were observed through scanning electron microscope. The results showed that lentivirus transfer vector with double suicide genes was constructed successfully. The above-mentioned plasmids were effectively transferred into 293T cells. So much green fluorescence was observed through fluorescence microscope. A lot of lentivirus particles were observed through transmission electron microscope. Double suicide genes mediated by lentivirus were stably integrated and expressed in K562 cells after infection with the concentrated virus using fluorescence microscopy and RT-PCR. The GIR of K562 cells using GCV or 5-FC was 48.73% or 50.69% respectively and it was apparently higher than that of untransfected cells (P < 0.01). When using GCV and 5-FC together, the GIR was 87.69%, which was apparently higher than that of group using GCV or 5-FC alone (P < 0.01). In conclusion, lentivirus-mediated gene transfer system could transfer CD and TK double suicide genes into K562 cells with high efficiency and it had strong killing effects when giving 5-FC and/or GCV. The cytotoxic effects of double suicide genes were superior to that of single suicide gene. The lentivirus-mediated double suicide gene transfer system is a high-efficiency gene transfer vector.

Cytosine Deaminase↗
PubMed2000

Lentivirus-based vectors transduce mouse hematopoietic stem cells with similar efficiency to moloney murine leukemia virus-based vectors.

The low levels of transduction of human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) with Moloney murine leukemia virus (MLV) vectors have been an obstacle to gene therapy for hematopoietic diseases. It has been demonstrated that lentivirus vectors are more efficient than MLV vectors at transducing nondividing cell lines as well as human CD34(+) cells and severe combined immunodeficiency disease repopulating cells. We compared transduction of cell lines and Lin(-) bone marrow cells, using a vesicular stomatitis virus G (VSV-G)-pseudotyped lentivirus or MLV vectors carrying a green fluorescent protein marker gene. As predicted, the lentivirus vector was more efficient at transducing mouse and human growth-inhibited cell lines. The transduction of mouse HSC by lentivirus vectors was compared directly to MLV vectors in a co-transduction assay. In this assay, transduction by ecotropic MLV is a positive internal control for downstream steps in retrovirus transduction, including cell division. Both the VSV-G lentivirus and MLV vectors transduced mouse HSCs maintained in cytokine-free medium at very low frequency, as did the ecotropic control. The lentivirus vector and the MLV vector were equally efficient at transducing bone marrow HSCs cultured in interleukin 3 (IL-3), IL-6, and stem cell factor for 96 hours. In conclusion, although lentivirus vectors are able to transduce growth-inhibited cell lines, the cell cycle status of HSCs render them resistant to lentivirus-mediated transduction, and it is hypothesized that entry into cycle, not necessarily division, may be a requirement for efficient lentivirus-mediated transduction.

3T3 Cells↗
PubMed1999

Transgene expression in the guinea pig cochlea mediated by a lentivirus-derived gene transfer vector.

The utility of lentivirus as a gene delivery vector in the cochlea was evaluated in vitro and in vivo. Lentivirus transduction was assessed through expression analysis of a reporter gene, green fluorescent protein (GFP), integrated within the viral genome. In vitro characterization of lentivirus-GFP was assessed by infection of explants from cochleas of neonatal rat. The lentiviral vector transduced both spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) and glial cells. In vivo characterization of lentivirus-GFP was assessed by directly infusing the vector into the guinea pig cochlea via an osmotic minipump. Sections of lentivirus-infused cochlea revealed a highly restricted fluorescence pattern limited to the periphery of the perilymphatic space. Transduction of SGNs and glial cells by lentivirus in vitro but not in vivo suggests limited dissemination of the viral vector from the perilymphatic space. The cellular and tissue architecture of the lentivirus-infused cochlea was intact and free of inflammation. Restricted transduction of cell types confined to the periphery of the perilymphatic space by the lentivirus is ideal for stable production of gene products secreted into the perilymph.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Highly lytic and persistent lentiviruses naturally present in sheep with progressive pneumonia are genetically distinct.

Ovine and caprine lentiviruses share the capacity to induce slowly progressive and inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system (leukoencephalitis or visna), lungs (progressive pneumonia or maedi), and joints (arthritis) in their natural hosts. Studies on their replication indicated that ovine lentiviruses and caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus (CAEV) recently isolated in the United States establish persistent infection in ovine and caprine fibroblasts, whereas older prototype ovine lentiviruses such as Icelandic visna virus or American progressive pneumonia virus irreversibly lyse fibroblast cultures. Since all of the recent isolates were found to be persistent, Narayan et al. (J. Gen. Virol. 59:345-356, 1982) concluded that the highly lytic viruses were only tissue-culture-adapted strains. In the present report, we isolated new ovine lentiviruses from French sheep with naturally occurring progressive pneumonia which are either highly lytic (five isolates), as are the Icelandic strains of visna virus, or persistent (one isolate), as are CAEV or American persistent ovine lentiviruses. Protein and nucleic acid content analyses of these new highly lytic (type I) and persistent (type II) isolates indicated that type I and type II ovine lentiviruses were genetically distinct, type I and type II viruses being closely related to the Icelandic strains of visna virus and to CAEV, respectively. We conclude that (i) highly lytic ovine lentiviruses, such as the Icelandic prototype strains of visna virus and persistent lentiviruses more related to CAEV, are naturally present in the ovine species, and (ii) irreversible cell lysis induced by highly lytic viruses does not result from a tissue culture adaptation of field isolates that were originally persistent but is instead the consequence of a genetic content distinct from that of persistent viruses.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Characterisation of an Irish caprine lentivirus strain--SRLV phylogeny revisited.

Small ruminant lentiviruses (SRLV), i.e. caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus (CAEV) (which infects goats) and maedi-visna virus (MVV) (which infects sheep) are two closely related lentiviruses but the relationship between goat and sheep lentiviruses has not been clearly established. To better understand their genetic relationship, we reinvestigated the phylogeny of SRLV using new sequences from an Irish and a Norwegian strain together with sequences available from databases. The phylogenetic analyses were carried out on the gag, pol and env fragments using four methods: neighbor-joining (NJ), Fitch and Margoliash (Fitch), Fitch and Wagner parsimony (Pars) and maximum likelihood (ML). The tree topologies were consistent whether derived from any of the four methods or any of the gene fragments, but the phylogenetic analyses in the pol and env regions were more informative than in the gag region. The Tamura-Nei model with variable rates across sites (described by a gamma distribution) provides a more accurate description of SRLV evolution than simple methods. The newly described Irish lentivirus strain, which was isolated from a goat, was closely related to the lentivirus that infects sheep: MVV. The novel Norwegian CAEV strain belonged to a cluster specific to the CAEV strains from Norway. Together, both data confirm the previously reported subdivision of the different SRLV strains into six clades. The caprine and ovine lentivirus sequences are interspersed in phylogenetic trees, supporting the existence of cross-species transmission. Nevertheless, the transmission of an ovine lentivirus to a goat could trigger the emergence of some goat-adapted phylums. Our new sequences confirm the complex situation in SRLV phylogeny but more sequences are needed to elucidate more precisely the relationship between SRLV.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Identification and evaluation of new primer sets for the detection of lentivirus proviral DNA.

We have developed sets of degenerate oligonucleotides designed to detect pol gene sequences from any member of the lentivirus subfamily when used as primers in amplification techniques such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). This pan-lentivirus-specific primer set (PLSPS) consists of primers, LV1, LV2, and LV3, based on conserved regions common to lentiviruses only. Our protocol is based on primary amplification with LV1 and LV2 followed by secondary amplification with a nested primer set based on the YM/VDD motif found in all reverse transcriptases (or "DDMY," in the opposite direction), and LV3, a block of lentivirus homology nested just downstream of LV1. PLSPS-PCR analysis of DNA from cells infected with HIV-1, HIV-2, SIVmac239, BIV, visna, EIAV, CAEV, OPPV, or FIV resulted in the amplification of appropriately sized products. Sequence analysis of the LV1/2 products, cloned into pBluescript (pBS), indicated that at least 20% (most often, > 80%) contained the predicted lentivirus pol sequence. Greater than 95% of the LV3/DDMY products contained the expected lentiviral sequences. Using the PLSPS, lentivirus pol sequences could typically be detected at levels of one copy in 2 x 10(6) cells after secondary amplification. No specific lentiviral PCR products were detected in DNA from uninfected human or mouse monocytes, feline or bovine leukocytes, mouse, rat or human fibroblast cell lines, chicken embryo fibroblasts, Tahr lung cells, or cell lines infected with the following retroviruses which are not lentiviruses: Rous sarcoma virus, Moloney leukemia virus or Kirsten sarcoma virus, mouse mammary tumor virus, human T-cell lymphotropic virus I, and feline leukemia virus.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2005

Long-term transgene expression and survival of transgene-expressing grafts following lentivirus transduction of bone marrow side population cells.

BACKGROUND: Successful transduction of hematopoietic stem cells is essential if gene therapy is to be used clinically to induce immunologic tolerance. METHODS: Hoechst 33342 staining was used to isolate a population of bone marrow cells enriched for stem cells, termed side population (SP) cells. Murine bone marrow SP cells were transduced with HLA-A2.1-expressing VSV-G-pseudotyped lentivirus or retrovirus vectors under identical conditions. RESULTS: After transduction without prestimulating cytokines, which minimizes cell cycling and helps maintain stem cell pluripotency, the HLA-A2.1 gene was found in the DNA of 56% of CFU-GM colonies derived from lentivirus-transduced SP cells, but in only 4% of colonies derived from retrovirus-transduced SP cells. Lentivirus and retrovirus transduction including cytokine prestimulation produced the same degree of integration as that following lentivirus-transduction of non-prestimulated cells. Transplantation of 5,000 lentivirus-transduced SP cells into lethally irradiated mice resulted in long-term expression of the HLA-A2.1 transgene in peripheral blood progeny of bone marrow SP cells and prolonged skin graft survival across this class I MHC barrier until the time of animal sacrifice. CONCLUSIONS: Recombinant lentivirus, but not retrovirus vectors, effectively transduced SP cells that were not prestimulated with cytokines and lentivirus-transduced SP cells successfully repopulated lethally irradiated C57BL/6 mice, animals where there is no selective advantage to repopulation with transduced cells. Transplantation of a relatively small number of transduced SP cells led to prolonged transgene mRNA expression and antigen-specific survival of grafts expressing the foreign MHC transgene.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Lentivirus cross-reactive determinants present in the capsid protein of equine infectious anaemia virus.

In this study we used immune sera from equine infectious anaemia virus (EIAV)-infected horses which uniquely display broad reactivity with different lentivirus capsid proteins (CA) to characterize the cross-reactive determinants of lentivirus CA proteins. In particular, the role of the major homology region (MHR) of lentivirus CA proteins in this serological cross-reactivity was evaluated using both equine immune serum and murine monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) directed against the MHR segment of different lentiviruses. The results of our studies indicate that about 80% of sera from long-term experimentally infected ponies or naturally infected horses react with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 CA in Western immunoblot assays. In addition, the cross-reactive determinants on the EIAV CA were localized within the immunodominant carboxyl terminus of the protein (residues 277 to 367). However, the cross-reactive determinants recognized by the equine sera do not appear to correlate with linear peptides from the carboxyl terminus of the EIAV CA, including the MHR. These results suggest cross-reactivity between more distant lentiviruses is associated with non-linear determinants. In contrast, MHR-specific MAbs did react with linear peptides by ELISA and distinguished the primate lentiviruses from EIAV and feline immunodeficiency virus. These data support the concept of a highly conserved structural and antigenic organization among the CA proteins of lentiviruses from different species.

Amino Acid Sequence↗