Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1979 Jun;76(6):2984–2987. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.6.2984

Virolysis of mouse mammary tumor virus by sera from breast cancer patients.

S S Witkin, R A Egeli, N H Sarkar, R A Good, N K Day
PMCID: PMC383735  PMID: 88736

Abstract

All type C retroviruses are lysed by human serum in apparently antibody-independent, complement-mediated reactions. In contrast, we have now determined that the mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV), a type B retrovirus, is not disrupted by normal human serum. MMTV was lysed, however, when rabbit antibody to whole MMTV was added to the serum. By taking advantage of this dependence of MMTV lysis on specific antibody, a virolytic assay was developed, based on the measurement of reverse transcriptase released from disrupted virions, to search for evidence of antibodies to MMTV in human sera. Significantly greater virolytic activity was detected in the sera of patients with breast cancer than in sera of patients with benign disease (P less than 0.001) or colorectal cancer (P less than 0.001) or in sera from apparently healthy individuals (P less than 0.002). This assay thus appears to be able to detect a unique attribute, possibly the presence of an antibody crossreacting with MMTV, in serum in patient with breast cancer.

Full text

PDF
2984

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bartholomew R. M., Esser A. F., Müller-Eberhard H. J. Lysis of oncornaviruses by human serum. Isolation of the viral complement (C1) receptor and identification as p15E. J Exp Med. 1978 Mar 1;147(3):844–853. doi: 10.1084/jem.147.3.844. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Black M. M., Zachrau R. E., Shore B., Moore D. H., Leis H. P., Jr Prognostically favorable immunogens of human breast cancer tissue: antigenic similarity to murine mammary tumor virus. Cancer. 1975 Jan;35(1):121–128. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(197501)35:1<121::aid-cncr2820350117>3.0.co;2-w. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Charney J., Moore D. H. Neutralization of murine mammary tumour virus by sera of women with breast cancer. Nature. 1971 Feb 26;229(5287):627–628. doi: 10.1038/229627a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Cooper N. R., Jensen F. C., Welsh R. M., Jr, Oldstone M. B. Lysis of RNA tumor viruses by human serum: direct antibody-independent triggering of the classical complement pathway. J Exp Med. 1976 Oct 1;144(4):970–984. doi: 10.1084/jem.144.4.970. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Holder W. D., Jr, Peer G. W., Bolognesi D. P., Wells S. A., Jr Antibody reacting with mouse mammary tumor virus in serum of breast carcinoma patients. Surg Forum. 1976;27(62):102–104. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Marcus S. L., Sarkar N. H., Modak M. J. Template-specific requirements for DNA synthesis by the Mason-Pfizer monkey virus DNA polymerase: unique aspects. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1978 Jul 24;519(2):317–330. doi: 10.1016/0005-2787(78)90085-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Mesa-Tejada R., Keydar I., Ramanarayanan M., Ohno T., Fenoglio C., Spiegelman S. Detection in human breast carcinomas of an antigen immunologically related to a group-specific antigen of mouse mammary tumor virus. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1978 Mar;75(3):1529–1533. doi: 10.1073/pnas.75.3.1529. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Ohno T., Sweet R. W., Dejak D., Spiegelman S. Purification and characterization of the DNA polymerase of human breast cancer particles. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Feb;74(2):764–768. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.2.764. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Racevskis J., Sarkar N. H. Synthesis and processing of precursor polypeptides to murine mammary tumor virus structural proteins. J Virol. 1978 Jan;25(1):374–383. doi: 10.1128/jvi.25.1.374-383.1978. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Ritzi E., Martin D. S., Stolfi R. L., Spiegelman S. Plasma levels of a viral protein as a diagnostic signal for the presence of mammary tumor: the effect of tumor removal. J Exp Med. 1977 Apr 1;145(4):999–1013. doi: 10.1084/jem.145.4.999. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Sarkar N. H., Dion A. S. Polypeptides of the mouse mammary tumor virus. I. Characterization of two group-specific antigens. Virology. 1975 Apr;64(2):471–491. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(75)90125-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Sarkar N. H., Pomenti A. A., Dion A. S. Replication of mouse mammary tumor virus in tissue culture. 1. Establishment of a mouse mammary tumor cell line, virus characterization, and quantitation of virus production. Virology. 1977 Mar;77(1):12–30. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(77)90402-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Sherwin S. A., Benveniste R. E., Todaro G. J. Complement-mediated lysis of type-C virus: effect of primate and human sera on various retroviruses. Int J Cancer. 1978 Jan 15;21(1):6–11. doi: 10.1002/ijc.2910210103. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Welsh R. M., Jr, Cooper N. R., Jensen F. C., Oldstone M. B. Human serum lyses RNA tumour viruses. Nature. 1975 Oct 16;257(5527):612–614. doi: 10.1038/257612a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Witkin S. S., Higgins P. J., Bendich A. Inhibition of viral reverse transcriptase and human sperm DNA polymerase by anti-sperm antibodies. Clin Exp Immunol. 1978 Aug;33(2):244–251. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Witkin S. S., Korngold G. C., Bendich A. Ribonuclease-sensitive DNA-synthesizing complex in human sperm heads and seminal fluid. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1975 Sep;72(9):3295–3299. doi: 10.1073/pnas.72.9.3295. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Witkin S. S., Schumaker H. M. A particulation DNA polymerase activity in adult rat brain. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1977 Apr 11;75(3):568–575. doi: 10.1016/0006-291x(77)91510-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES