Ma. Mufson et Rj. Stanek, IDENTIFICATION OF A VARIANT SUBGROUP A STRAIN OF RESPIRATORY SYNCYTIAL VIRUS, Journal of clinical microbiology, 34(10), 1996, pp. 2493-2496
During epidemiologic surveillance of children with respiratory syncyti
al virus (RSV) disease in Huntington, W.Va., we identified seven strai
ns of a new variant subgroup A RSV (subgroup A-Var) by their reactions
in an enzyme immunoassay with two anti-F monoclonal antibodies (MAbs)
specific for two epitopes, Fl and F4, generated against the subgroup
B RSV, The prototype strain of subgroup A and all other subgroup A fie
ld strains from that epidemiologic year failed to react with these two
subgroup B MAbs, Additional enzyme immunoassays with 18 subgroup B an
ti-F MAbs specific for 14 epitopes showed that subgroup A-Var strains
also reacted with a MAb specific for the subgroup B FZ epitope, In a r
adioimmune precipitation assay, the molecular size of the subgroup A-V
ar F2 subunit of the fusion (F) protein clearly differed from those of
both prototype strains of subgroup A and subgroup B RSV, The molecula
r size of the F2 subunit of subgroup A-Var (24 kDa) was intermediate b
etween the size of the F2 subunit of subgroup A (25 kDa) and that of s
ubgroup B (23 kDa), However, the molecular sizes of the F1 subunits of
both subgroup A and subgroup A-Var were identical (54 kDa) and slight
ly larger than those of the F1 subunits of both subgroups B1 and BZ (5
3 kDa), These data suggest that subgroup A-Var may represent a distinc
t RSV A subgroup, analogous to subgroup BI and B2 RSV, and it is the f
irst-identified naturally occurring subgroup A RSV with an F protein d
ifferent from that of the prototype A RSV.