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. 1973 Dec;12(6):1540–1547. doi: 10.1128/jvi.12.6.1540-1547.1973

Mason-Pfizer Virus Characterization: a Similar Virus in a Human Amniotic Cell Line

W P Parks 1,2,3,4, R V Gilden 1,2,3,4, A F Bykovsky 1,2,3,4, G G Miller 1,2,3,4, V M Zhdanov 1,2,3,4, V D Soloviev 1,2,3,4, E M Scolnick 1,2,3,4
PMCID: PMC356797  PMID: 4128382

Abstract

Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (MP-MV) is a RNA virus with an RNA-instructed DNA polymerase first isolated from a rhesus monkey mammary adenocarcinoma in 1970. Until recently, there have been no other isolates. A continuous human amnion cell line, AO, was found to be producing a virus indistinguishable or closely related to the Mason-Pfizer virus as measured by morphological, immunological, and biochemical methods. By thin-section electron microscopy, the extracellular virus particle in AO line is 115 to 130 nm in diameter and has a preformed nucleoid (80 to 90 nm) before budding, properties which are also characteristic of MP-MV. Two proteins of the virus from the AO line were studied. By immunodiffusion, sera which react specifically with MP-MV give a line of identity with virus from the AO line. The AO viral RNA-instructed DNA polymerase purified by phosphocellulose chromatography was specifically inhibited by anti-MP-MV polymerase sera, and the AO cells contained both DNA and RNA sequences related to MP-MV 3H-DNA. Viruses thus far indistinguishable from MP-MV have also recently been found by others in different human lines, raising again the question of the species of origin of MP-MV. Because the virus in the AO cells cannot be differentiated from MP-MV, we attempted to determine the origin of MP-MV virus by measuring DNA sequences related to MP-MV 3H-DNA in uninfected human and rhesus monkey cells. The quantity of MP-MV-like DNA sequences in uninfected primate tissues was found to be much lower than the amount of DNA sequences of murine type-B or type-C viruses in uninfected murine tissues. Thus, it was not possible to determine whether the virus produced by AO cells or MP-MV was of human or monkey origin, or both.

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Selected References

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