Bovine leukaemia virus ISCOMs: biochemical characterization.

The glycoprotein gp51 of bovine leukaemia virus (BLV) has been included in an immunostimulating complex (ISCOM). The ISCOM was characterized biochemically in SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showing the presence of proteins of estimated molecular weights of 50 and 30 kDa. Immunoblotting showed that gp51 was present in the ISCOM. The BLV-ISCOM had a S-value of 19 S and the electronmicrograph showed the cage-like structure as previously reported for other ISCOMs. About 17% of the total amount of gp51 in the cell culture fluid was recovered in the ISCOMs. The largest loss of gp51 was encountered during the sedimentation of the virus. An ELISA, utilizing monoclonal antibodies to defined epitopes for capture was developed to control the antigenicity of epitopes, e.g. those known to induce neutralizing antibodies. Using this device as a quality control for epitopes the following could be stated. First, ISCOMs prepared from virus solubilized with the non-ionic detergents Triton X-100 or MEGA did not react with neutralizing monoclonal antibodies. In contrast, ISCOMs prepared from virus solubilized with the non-ionic detergents Tween-20, Tween-80 or octyl glucoside did react with the neutralizing antibodies. Second, the neutralizing epitopes were better exposed in ISCOMs than the other epitopes of gp51. In a preliminary experiment it was shown that gp51 in ISCOMs was highly immunogenic.