title: Analysis of the helper virus in murine retrovirus-induced immunodeficiency syndrome: evidence for immunoselection of the dominant and subdominant CTL epitopes of the BM5 ecotropic virus.
abstract: In genetically susceptible strains, such as C57BL/6 (B6) mice, LP-BM5 causes murine AIDS (MAIDS). LP-BM5 is a complex mixture of murine leukemia viruses (MuLV) that includes replication competent ecotropic (BM5eco) and mink cell focus inducing (MCF), and replication defective (BM5d) MuLV. At present, for the BM5eco virus, sequence information on only the gag region is available. In this paper, we describe for the first time the sequencing of the entire BM5eco viral genome as well as analysis of homology with two other previously sequenced and well-characterized MuLVs, Emv-11 and Emv-2, the latter constituting the parental virus for BM5eco. We propose that the detailed sequence comparisons herein provide cogent evidence that BM5eco utilizes variations in cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) epitopes as an immune escape mechanism. This CTL evasion mechanism may contribute substantially to the underlying prototypic susceptibility of B6 mice to LP-BM5-induced MAIDS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and the Norris Cotton Cancer Center, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, New Hampshire 03756, USA.
authors.forename: Arti
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gaur
authors.forename: William R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Green
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D003673:Defective Viruses; D006378:Helper Viruses / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes / Q000235:genetics*; D009052:Leukemia Virus, Murine / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D051379:Mice; D008908:Mink Cell Focus-Inducing Viruses; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016183:Murine Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000821:virology*; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes