Preliminary studies of nonvirion antigens associated with herpes simplex virus 1 and 2 (HSV1 - HSV2)

Biochemical and radioimmunological studies have indicated the presence of a nonvirion antigen associated with herpes virus. Guinea pig kidney cells were grown in culture and infected (I-cells) for 3h with herpes virus. Uninfected cells (N-cells) served as control. The cells were collected and sonicated to obtain, after centrifugation, "soluble extract" (SI, SN). The pellets were extracted with KCl (ISP, NSP). SN, SI were submitted to gel-filtration on Sephadex G-200. Extracts from I and N cells gave similar patterns. After labelling with 125I, greater resolution was obtained in a second gel-filtration with a much smaller load. ISP contained protein species not present in NSP. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of peaks from SN and SI showed that SI contained some radioactive bands not found in SN. Labelled materials from SI and SN were incubated with sera from cancer patients and normal subjects. No differences in binding were seen with SN, but SI showed 14-30% more 125I binding with sera of cancer patients than with sera from normal subjects. No such difference was seen between ISP and NSP.