Radioimmunoassay for the Major Structural Protein of Hamster Type C Viruses

A radioimmunoassay for the major, group-specific antigen (p30) of hamster type C viruses was developed. The test detected approximately 5 ng of viral protein per ml and was highly specific for hamster viruses when used with homologous antibody. Comparison of three hamster viruses, two being mouse-hamster pseudotypes, in homologous and heterologous intraspecies assays, showed no evidence of type specificity for these proteins. The pseudotype viruses showed no evidence of mouse virus p30 antigenic determinants. An interspecies antigen assay employing (125)I-labeled hamster p30 and anti-feline p30 was completely inhibited by cat (feline leukemia virus), hamster, and rat viruses, to a slightly lesser degree by mouse viruses, and only poorly by RD 114 and Gibbon ape viruses. The Mason-Pfizer virus did not inhibit this assay. Hamster p30 was detected by radioimmunoassay in individual embryos from two LSH hamsters and in several adult tissues, excluding muscle at levels below that required for detection in complement-fixation tests.