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. 1980 Oct;77(10):6124-8.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.77.10.6124.

delta Agent: association of delta antigen with hepatitis B surface antigen and RNA in serum of delta-infected chimpanzees

M Rizzetto, B Hoyer, M G Canese, J W Shih, R H Purcell, J L Gerin

delta Agent: association of delta antigen with hepatitis B surface antigen and RNA in serum of delta-infected chimpanzees

M Rizzetto et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1980 Oct.

Abstract

The hepatitis B virus-associated beta antigen was found in the serum of experimentally infected chimpanzee as an internal component of a discrete subpopulation of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) particles. The 35- to 37-nm particles banded in CsCl at 1.24-1.25 g/cm3 and sedimented with a mobility intermediate between that of the hepatitis B virion and that of the 22-nm form of HBsAg. The particles contained only indistinct internal structure by electron microscopy and were not unique to delta agent infection, similar particles without delta-antigen activity being observed in the preinfection serum of HBsAg carrier chimpanzees. A small RNA (Mr, 5 X 10(5)) was temporally associated with delta antigen in the serum of infected chimpanzees and copurified with the delta-antigen-associated particles. This RNA is smaller than the genomes of known RNA viruses but larger than the viroids of higher plants.

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