title: Detection, isolation, and continuous production of cytopathic retroviruses (HTLV-III) from patients with AIDS and pre-AIDS.
abstract: A cell system was developed for the reproducible detection of human T-lymphotropic retroviruses (HTLV family) from patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) or with signs or symptoms that frequently precede AIDS (pre-AIDS). The cells are specific clones from a permissive human neoplastic T-cell line. Some of the clones permanently grow and continuously produce large amounts of virus after infection with cytopathic (HTLV-III) variants of these viruses. One cytopathic effect of HTLV-III in this system is the arrangement of multiple nuclei in a characteristic ring formation in giant cells of the infected T-cell population. These structures can be used as an indicator to detect HTLV-III in clinical specimens. This system opens the way to the routine detection of HTLV-III and related cytopathic variants of HTLV in patients with AIDS or pre-AIDS and in healthy carriers, and it provides large amounts of virus for detailed molecular and immunological analyses.
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000382:microbiology*; D002455:Cell Division; D002460:Cell Line; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002470:Cell Survival; D002999:Clone Cells / Q000382:microbiology; D003588:Cytopathogenic Effect, Viral; D017977:Deltaretrovirus / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D012194:RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase / Q000378:metabolism; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000382:microbiology; D014776:Virus Cultivation
chemical_list: D012194:RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase