Monoclonal antibodies recognizing structural components of murine retroviruses including an FMR antigen on protein p12.

Monoclonal antibodies were prepared from mice and rats immunized with Friend leukaemia virus and BALB/c xenotropic virus. By immunoprecipitation of 125I-labelled and [35S]methionine-labelled viruses and by protein blotting, ten antibodies were found to react with the viral components p12, p15, p30, gp70 and p15E/p12E. A dot-immunobinding assay was found to be a reliable method to type the antibody reactivity with different murine leukaemia viruses (MuLVs). When tested on a panel of ecotropic and xenotropic MuLVs the antibodies revealed the following antigenic specificities: ecotrop-specific on p15E/p12E; xenotrop-specific on p15E; group-specific on p30 and p15E; FM-specific on gp70; FR-specific on gp70 and p15. Of particular interest is a cytotoxic antibody recognizing an FMR determinant localized on p12.