Monoclonal antibodies recognising pol and env proteins of mammalian retroviruses.

Mouse monoclonal antibodies were generated for three 20- to 23-mer synthetic peptides whose amino acid sequences were highly conserved in the pol or env regions of 14 mammalian and two avian retroviruses. By Western-blot analysis, these antibodies recognised the epitopes in major and minor pol or env proteins of six mammalian type-C and -D retroviruses. One of the anti-env monoclonal antibodies was found to recognise all the env transmembrane proteins of six mammalian retroviruses examined.