Immunological reactivity of herpes simplex virus 1 and 2 polypeptides electrophoretically separated and transferred to diazobenzyloxymethyl paper.

In this paper we report that viral polypeptides from herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) and 2 (HSV-2)-infected cells electrophoretically separated in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide-agarose gels and transferred to diazobenzyloxymethyl paper can react with rabbit hyperimmune sera, both polyvalent and prepared against specific antigens. The polyvalent hyperimmune sera against HSV-1 reacted with 17 HSV-1 polypeptide bands and 8 HSV-2 polypeptide bands. Concordantly, polyvalent sera against HSV-2 reacted with at least 16 HSV-2 polypeptide bands and 8 HSV-1 polypeptide bands. The antisera prepared against the specific antigens reacted with a smaller number of polypeptide bands. Preimmune sera and immune sera did not react with electrophoretically separated polypeptides from infected and uninfected cells, respectively. The immune localization of separated antigens test provides a powerful technique for identification of immunogenic viral polypeptides, especially those which are normally insoluble and therefore unavailable for immunological reactivity in immune precipitation tests.