Immunoenzymatic labelling of JC papovavirus T antigen in brains of patients with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy.

Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded autopsy sections of brains from two patients with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) were stained by peroxidase-antiperoxidase methods for human papovavirus T antigen, a nonstructural protein expressed in cells lytically infected or transformed by JC, BK, and SV40 viruses. Adjacent sections were stained for papovavirus common structural antigen, a component of JC, BK, and SV40 virions which is synthesized in productively infected but not transformed cells. Intense immunoperoxidase labelling specific for T antigen was detected in large numbers of oligodendrocytes at the edges of demyelinated areas and in occasional oligodendrocytes within otherwise normal brain. Occasional morphologically normal astrocytic cells exhibited similar specific staining, but only rate atypical astrocytic cells contained detectable amounts of T antigen. Examination of adjacent sections stained with antisera to common structural antigen revealed an identical pattern of immunoenzymatic labelling, indicating that most of the cells expressing T antigen were also expressing viral structural proteins. The present study demonstrates that T antigen can be identified by immunoperoxidase methods in routinely processed autopsy material from cases of PML, but that detectable amounts of antigen are found almost exclusively in cells undergoing lytic infection.