Establishment of monoclonal antibody, gp21-34, against HTLV-II envelope protein (p20E)

A monoclonal antibody (MAb), gp21-34, specifically reactive with human T-lymphotropic virus type-II (HTLV-II) transmembranous envelope glycoprotein (p20E) was developed by immunization with a recombinant protein fused with thioredoxin moiety at the N-terminal portion. This MAb, which belongs to the IgG1 kappa subclass, reacted with HTLV-II infected cell lines (TON-1, C3-44, and Si-IIA) by IFA, but not with HTLV-I infected cell lines (TCL-Kan and MT-2). By Western blot analysis, this MAb reacted with p20E of HTLV-II lysates but not with HTLV-I lysates. Some epitope analyses with synthetic peptides were carried out to look for a plausible linear epitope in the C-terminal region of p20E.