[The isolation and characteristics of the green monkey lentivirus]

We characterized the simian immunodeficiency virus isolated from Cercopithecus aethiops (subspecies C. a. pygerythrus) originating from Kenya. SIV was isolated and continuously produced with the MOLT4 clone 8 cell line and was designated as SIV-SU1. SIV-SU1 isolate replicated with high efficiency in MOLT4 clone 8, MT-2 with moderate efficiency in CEM x 174 and with poor efficiency in HUT-78, U937, C8166. The infection of MT-2, C8166 and HUT-78 resulted in extensive cell killing. Western blotting of purified preparations of SIV-SU1 revealed viral proteins of 130, 68, 55, 41, 24, 17 kDa. Cross-reactivity of SIV-SU1 proteins with HIV-1, HIV-2, SIVmac, SIVsm, SIVmnd was studied by radioimmunoprecipitation assay. The most extensive cross-reactivity was observed with SIVmac. Total cellular DNA from chronically infected cells was hybridized to SIVagm266 DNA probes. Detection of cross-hybridizing DNA sequences required very low stringency, and the restriction endonuclease fragmentation pattern of SIV-SU1 differed from other SIVs.