Herpes simplex-genitalis virus nonvirion antigens and their implication in certain human cancers: unconfirmed.

The previously reported data on the existence of herpes simplex-genitalis virus nonvirion, neoantigens with distinctive properties, and on the presence of specific antibodies for these neoantigens only in the sera of specially hyperimmunized guinea pigs or of patients with certain types of cancer, could not be confirmed. Many factors that could have been responsible for the difference between the originally reported results and those recently obtained were carefully checked and investigated. The assumption that a mixture of two anticomplementary ingredients bound at least as much complement as the more anticomplementary component, and sometimes more, was found to be incorrect for the ingredients used in this work; the reverse was true. Previous failure to observe some of the strict requirements of the complement fixation test could account for some but not all of the unconfirmed previously reported data. Conclusions, based on the unconfirmed data, including those implicating these viruses in the etiology of certain human cancers, are therefore negated.