Production of monoclonal antibodies against HTLV-I proteins recognizing surface epitopes of live infected cells

Abstract

The proteins of HTLV-I virus, the only human retrovirus implicated in the etiopathogenesis of the T-cell leukemia, were previously studied with the use of monoclonal antibodies. Different groups have produced specific monoclonal antibodies that recognized the core proteins of the virus p19 and p24 and in one case a monoclonal specific of a gp21 protein. All these antibodies were shown to react with the virus-producing fixed cells. We also developed a battery of antibodies against p24 and p19 antigens from HTLV-I virus but the anti-p19 monoclonal antibodies happened to recognize epitopes exposed on the surface of live HTLV-I infected cells. One of the monoclonal antibody that bound to the surface of HTLV infected cells recognized a protein of an approximate mol. wt of 33 kilodalton (KD). These antibodies that bound to the live cells should be precious tools to study leukemic patients with T-cell leukemia and the evolution of the live cell populations during the course of the disease.