CYTOTOXIC T-LYMPHOCYTES DIRECTED AGAINST MAIDS-ASSOCIATED TUMORS AND CELLS FROM MICE INFECTED BY THE LP-BM5 MAIDS DEFECTIVE RETROVIRUS

The LP-BM5 retrovirus, a complex containing ecotropic helper, recombin ant MCF, and defective retroviruses, causes an immunodeficiency-termed mouse AIDS (MAIDS). Many disease features of MAIDS resemble those of AIDS, including terminal B cell lymphomas. Previously we generated fro m MAIDS-susceptible C57BL/6 mice cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTL) specifi c for MAIDS-associated B cell lymphomas. Data of the present study (1) exclude MCF and establish a role for defective virus in generating C5 7BL/6 CTL to MAIDS-associated tumors by experiments involving in vitro stimulation with cells from LP-BM5, ecotropic, or ecotropic-rescued d efective virus-infected mice and (2) confirm that such CTL are specifi c for tumors of MAIDS origin. Several approaches testing for direct in volvement of defective virus or its gag-encoded polyprotein, however, did not provide evidence that MAIDS tumor-specific CTL were directed t o structural virion proteins, suggesting the possibility that such CTL are specific for nonvirion antigens whose expression depends on the a ction of the defective genome in the MAIDS disease process. (C) 1994 A cademic Press, Inc.