Bovine viral diarrhea virus proteins: heterogeneity of cytopathogenic and non-cytopathogenic strains and evidence of a 53K glycoprotein neutralization epitope.

Intracellular virus-induced polypeptides from 3 cytopathogenic and 2 non-cytopathogenic bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) virus reference strains were analyzed by radioimmunoprecipitation and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, using a specific bovine multivalent antiserum and a neutralizing BVD-virus monoclonal antibody. Electrophoretic patterns of major proteins demonstrate extensive variation between strains. Most notably, a major 80,000 (80K) polypeptide was present in all cytopathogenic strains but absent in both non-cytopathogenic strains. Furthermore, a neutralizing monoclonal antibody produced against the NADL strain immunoprecipitated a 53K glycoprotein indicating that this protein carries an important neutralization epitope that is not present in all strains tested.