Autogenous immunity to endogenous RNA tumor virus: humoral immune response to virus envelope antigens

Autogenous immune sera from several strains of mice have been examined for type-, group-, or interspecies-specific reactivities against leukemia virus envelope antigens and virus-induced cell surface proteins. The natural antibody of these test sera react with gp69/71, gp43, and p15 structural components on murine leukemia viruses including AKR, Friend, Rauscher, Moloney, and xenotropic BALB:virus-2. Furthermore, comparable radioimmune titration curves are obtained when these viruses are used in radioimmune precipitation assays. Competition experiments, however, suggest that natural immune sera are predominantly type specific and only weakly cross-react with the Rauscher or Friend virus. Natural immune sera react with the virion envelope but not with the virus-induced cell surface antigen. With respect to the biological activity of autogenous immune sera, there appears to be an inconsistency between the spectrum of virus-precipitating antibody and virus-neutralizing antibody. Although normal mouse serum readily neutralizes xenotropic viruses (BALB:virus-2), only weak neutralization of the ecotropic viruses can be achieved in vitro. Although there is a lack of direct evidence to indicate that autogenous immunity to murine leukemia virus is involved in the control of virus-mediated neoplasia, several empirical correlations point in this direction.