Interaction between anti-influenza viral polymerase antibodies and RNP particles using the in vitro transcription process and an immunogold labelling technique.

Immunogold labelling and in vitro transcription of influenza virus vRNA have been used to analyse the interaction of anti-influenza polymerase antibodies with influenza-ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes. The polymerase proteins (P proteins) were localized exclusively at one end of the RNP segments. In the course of transcription the amount of P protein decreased significantly. The in vitro transcriptase activity y of influenza A virus RNP complexes in the presence of anti-polymerase antibodies to the strain A/PR/8/34 was inhibited by 60%. In contrast, RNP transcriptase activity of influenza B virus was not inhibited by these antibodies.