[A comparative analysis of the polypeptides of the the Sindbis and Karelian fever viruses]

Abstract

In pulse-chase experiments with Karelian fever virus-infected cells, proteins were found with molecular weights of 130, 98, 78, and 62 kD of which the first, second and fourth were classified as polypeptide precursors of the structural proteins of virion. The molecular weights of proteins E1, E2 and C of 52, 47 and 34 kD, respectively, as well as isoelectric points of isolated glycoproteins (pI E1 = 6.3, pI E2 = 8.4) were similar in KFV (strain Leiv-9298) and Sindbis virus (strain AR339). The antigenic similarity of the strains under study in neutralization test with hyperimmune sera, the identity of physicochemical characteristics of the structural proteins of KFV and prototype Sindbis virus strain suggest a close relationship of the Leiv-9298 strain to the Afro-European variants of Sindbis virus.