| abstract |
The present invention relates to a retrovirus isolated from a chimpanzee and designated as SIVcpz-ant? and to variants of this virus, having the following essential morphological and immunological properties: the virus exhibits a tropism for T4 lymphocytes, the virus exhibits no typical cytopathic effect with the formation of giant cells in the lymphocytes that it infects, the virus has a diameter of approximately 130 nm, the virus possesses a magnesium dependant reverse transcriptase activity, it can be cultivated in T4 receptor-bearing immortalized cell-lines, lysates of the virus contain a p27 protein that is immunologically distinct from the p25 of HIV-1 and p19 protein of HTLV-1 on western blot, lysates of the virus contain a gp140 protein which is immunologically distinct from the gp120 of HIV-1 and gp-110 of HTLV-I by western blot analysis, the lysate of the virus contains in addition a transmembrane glycoprotein with a molecular weight of 44.000 to 50.000 KD. |