Use of monoclonal anti-gp70 antibodies to mimic the effects of the Rfv-3 gene in mice with Friend virus-induced leukemia.

During the course of progressive Friend virus-induced leukemia in Rfv-3r/s mice, antiviral antibody caused a marked reduction in the frequency of leukemic spleen cells releasing infectious virus. We investigated the mechanism of this antibody-induced alteration of leukemia cell phenotype in a series of passive transfer experiments using monoclonal antiviral antibodies. Our results indicated that two IgG2a anti-gp70 cytotoxic antibodies could reduce the frequency of virus-producing cells within the leukemic spleen as well as maintain the virus-nonproducing phenotype once it was established. IgG2a and IgG2b monoclonal anti-p 15 antibodies, IgM, and IgA anti-gp70 antibodies, and an IgG3 anti-p 15(E) antibody were not effective. The mechanism of this phenotypic alteration appeared to involve an antibody-mediated cytostasis of virus-producing leukemia cells with the subsequent over-growth of virus-nonproducing cells. The maintenance of the virus-nonproducing phenotype was dependent on the presence of anti-gp70 antibodies capable of neutralizing and clearing infectious F-MuLV in vivo. The presence of these neutralizing antibodies appeared to prevent reinfection of virus-nonproducing cells and therefore interfered with reversion to the virus-producing phenotype.