The major internal protein of the RD-114 virus that appeared in a human tumor cell line, RD, after passage through fetal cats was purified by isoelectric focusing and used to prepare antibody in guinea pigs.

Using sensitive radiommunoprecipitation assays for highly purified type-C RNA tumor virus proteins, we found that 5 of 16 clinically normal gibbons (including 4 of 5 normal animals from a colony with 2 cases of lymphoma) and 4 of 4 experimentally inoculated gibbons formed antibodies to the major structural protein (p30) of gibbon ape leukemia virus (GaLV). An additional woolly monkey immunized with the closely related simian sarcoma virus also formed antibodies detectable with GaLV p30. Of 20 patients immunized with formalin-inactivated Rauscher murine leukemia virus (R-MuLV), 10 were previously reported to have antibodies to MuLV as determined by an internally labeled banded virus radioimmunoprecipitation assay. In comparison studies with purified R-MuLV proteins, 7 of 20 patients formed antibodies: 3/20 to R-MuLV p30 only, 1/20 to R-MuLV glycoprotein (gp) 70 only, and 3/20 to both p30 and gp70. Most responders were melanoma patients receiving immunotherapy with BCG. Additionally, rhesus monkeys produced antibodies to the endogenous cat virus RD114 and closely related endogenous baboon leukemia virus p30's. Thus these studies demonstrated the ability of primates (including humans) to form antibodies to well-characterized proteins from endogenous and exogenous type-C viruses and the potential utility of these assays for seroepidemiologic studies.

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The major internal protein, p30, of rat type C virus (RaLV) was purified and utilized to establish intra-and interspecies radioimmunoassays. Three rat viruses were compared in homologous and heterologous intraspecies assays with no evidence of type specificity. The only heterologous viruses to give inhibition in these species assays were the feline (FeLV) and hamster (HaLV) type C viruses; these reactions were incomplete and required high virus concentrations. An interspecies assay using a goat antiserum prepared after sequentially immunizing with FeLV, RD 114, and woolly monkey virus p30's and labeled RaLV p30 was inhibited by all mammalian type C viruses, although preferentially by RaLV, FeLV, and HaLV. Thus, as in a previously reported assay developed with HaLV p30, rat, hamster, and cat p30's seem more closely related to each other than to mouse type C virus p30. High levels of specific antigen were found in all cell lines producing rat virus, whereas embryonic tissues from several rat strains and cell lines considered virus-free based on other tests were negative for p30. Rats bearing tumors containing Moloney murine sarcoma virus (RaLV) did not contain free circulating antibody to RaLV p30. Fifty-one human tumor extracts (including two tumor cell lines) were tested for activity in the RaLV species and 47 in the interspecies assays after Sephadex gel filtration and pooling of material in the 15,000to 40,000-molecular-weight range. At a sensitivity level of 7 ng/ml (0.7 ng/assay) in the interspecies assay, all human tissues, with one exception, were negative. The one positive result is considered nonspecific based on proteolysis of the labeled antigen. Input tissue protein of the purified tumor extracts averaged 1.9 mg/ml with a range of <0.025 to 22 mg/ml. Tissues from NIH Swiss mice processed in the same manner were positive in the interspecies assay but negative in the intraspecies RaLV assay.

The 25,000 dalton protein of Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (MPMV) was isolated by gel filtration chromatography. In agreement with results from other laboratories, antisera to type-C and the non-type-C bovine leukemia and equine infectious anemia viruses did not precipitate 125I-labelled MPMV p25. In addition, these viruses did not cross-react in a competition radioimmunoassay for MPMV p25. Twenty-one human tissues (15 breast carcinomas, 2 normal breasts, 3 acute myelogenous leukemias and 1 sarcoma) were fractionated by detergent solubilization, ammonium sulfate precipitation, and DE-52 anion exchange chromatography. These methods were shown to be highly effective for purification of MPMV p25. Under assay conditions which minimized incubation damage to the 125I-MPMV p25, all tissues failed to react in the competition radioimmunoassay (RIAT). Two hundred and two human sera or plasma specimens, including those from patients with breast cancer and 33 age-matched controls, from 50 patients with hematologic malignancies, from 12 patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and from 14 patients with systemic lupus erythematosis, were examined for antibodies to MPMV p25. With the exception of two multiple myeloma plasma which produced artifactual false positive reactions based on hypergammaglobulinemia, a known complication of salt precipitation radioimmunoassays, the remainder of the specimens were negative for evidence of MPMV p25 antibodies.