Type D retroviruses from human cells do not contain a minor glycoprotein shared by old world monkey type D viruses.

The protein patterns of type D retroviruses isolated either from permanent human cells (HeLa virus, HeLa V, and HEp-2 virus, HEp-2V) or from spectacled langur (langur virus, LV), an Old World monkey, were investigated using sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Labeling with 14C-amino acids and 3H-glucosamine revealed for each of these isolates five polypeptides with molecular weights of 10,000, 12,000, 15,000, 25,000 and about 68,000 and identified the 68,000 D-protein as a glycoprotein. An additional glycoprotein with a molecular weight of 20,000 (gp20) was resolved in LV similarly as in previous studies with Mason-Pfizer monkey virus. However, in accordance with our recent analysis of a third type D isolate from human cells (PMFV), gp20 was not detectable in both HeLaV and HEp-2V regardless of the cell line in which they were grown. Thus, it appears that the type D virus isolates from human cells are slightly distinct from the presently known type D retroviruses of Old World monkeys. The relevance of this finding to the origin of the human isolates, however, remains to be shown.