[Modeling chronic infection in a T-lymphocyte-Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis virus system]

A model of chronic infection in the system of T-lymphocyte--VEE virus was made. Production of infectious VEE (up to 6.0 lg PFU/ml), tissue culture interferon levels (less than 10 units/ml), accumulation of virus-specific antigen in chronically infected continuous human T-lymphocytes (78%) were studied. The presence of virus-specific sequence in DNA from infected cells was studied by the method of molecular hybridization and found not to exceed one DNA replica of virus genome per three cells of chronically infected T-lymphocyte culture.