[Immunologic aspects of preparation of antiserum to the reverse transcriptase from avian myeloblastosis virus]

Abstract

After immunization of rabbits the antiserum was prepared against purified reverse transcriptase (revertase) from avian myeloblastosis virus (AMV). The antiserum demonstrated enzymeneutralizing antibody activity that was associated with ummunoglobulin G fraction but not with IgM. The high antigenicity of AMV revertase for rabbits was shown. The active antiserum was obtained after 4 immunizations of rabbit with approximately 20 microgram of the enzyme. Non-specific revertase inhibitors were found in normal rabbit serum, which were absent in IgG fraction from this serum. The revertase activity of Rauscher leukemia virus (RLV) and Visna virus was not neutralized by antisera against AMV polymerase. This work was supported by the project "Revertase".