Fontenot J D, Hoover E A, Elder J H, Montelaro R C
Department of Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pennsylvania 15261.
J Clin Microbiol. 1992 Jul;30(7):1885-90. doi: 10.1128/jcm.30.7.1885-1890.1992.
The general model for retrovirus transmembrane (TM) proteins proposed by Gallaher et al. (W. R. Gallaher, J. M. Ball, R. F. Garry, M. C. Griffin, and R. C. Montelaro, AIDS Res. Hum. Retroviruses 5:431-440, 1989) suggests that all retrovirus TM proteins may contain an immunodominant domain (Imd-TM peptide) located at the apex of the TM polypeptide. Although this Imd-TM peptide has been shown to be immunodominant in a variety of lentivirus infections, there has not been a detailed serological analysis of an oncovirus Imd-TM peptide as a diagnostic agent. We describe here an analysis of the antigenic properties and diagnostic potentials of the predicted Imd-TM peptides of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and feline leukemia virus (FeLV) in serological assays of sera from infected cats. The results of these studies demonstrate that antibodies specific to the FIV Imd-TM peptide are detected within 2 weeks postinfection, are maintained at high levels for extended periods, and are not detectable in uninfected or FeLV-infected cats. In marked contrast, the FeLV Imd-TM peptide displayed only negligible levels of serological reactivity in FeLV-infected cats. These studies indicate that the peptide is a useful reagent for the detection of antibodies to FIV.
加拉赫等人（W. R. 加拉赫、J. M. 鲍尔、R. F. 加里、M. C. 格里芬和R. C. 蒙泰拉罗，《艾滋病研究与人类逆转录病毒》5:431 - 440，1989年）提出的逆转录病毒跨膜（TM）蛋白通用模型表明，所有逆转录病毒TM蛋白可能都含有一个位于TM多肽顶端的免疫显性结构域（免疫显性TM肽）。尽管这种免疫显性TM肽在多种慢病毒感染中已被证明具有免疫显性，但尚未对作为诊断试剂的肿瘤病毒免疫显性TM肽进行详细的血清学分析。我们在此描述了对猫免疫缺陷病毒（FIV）和猫白血病病毒（FeLV）预测的免疫显性TM肽在感染猫血清的血清学检测中的抗原特性和诊断潜力的分析。这些研究结果表明，针对FIV免疫显性TM肽的抗体在感染后2周内即可检测到，长时间维持在高水平，且在未感染或FeLV感染的猫中检测不到。与之形成鲜明对比的是，FeLV免疫显性TM肽在FeLV感染的猫中仅表现出可忽略不计的血清学反应水平。这些研究表明，该肽是检测FIV抗体的有用试剂。
