ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES RAISED AGAINST THE REVERSE-TRANSCRIPTASE OF HUMAN-IMMUNODEFICIENCY-VIRUS TYPE-2 ANDCROSS-REACTIVITY WITH THAT OF TYPE-1

Monoclonal antibodies to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-2 reverse transcriptase have been raised with the ultimate goal of generating Fa b fragments for future co-crystallization studies. A number of mouse m onoclonal antibodies to recombinant HIV-2 reverse transcriptase have b een obtained and characterized in terms of the possible epitopes they recognise together with cross-reactivity with a related reverse transc riptase. The antibodies were shown to fall into three groups that reco gnize different regions of the reverse transcriptase enzyme. One antib ody, which recognizes part of the RNase H domain, demonstrated cross-r eactivity between the HIV-1 and HIV-2 reverse transcriptases.