GENERALIZED OCCURRENCE OF THE BROADLY ANTIVIRAL SUBSTANCE UTI-BETA INMAMMALIAN SERA

This study compares the characteristics of naturally occurring antivir al activities in nonhuman mammalian sera to UTIbeta (University of Tex as virus inhibitor beta), an innate, non-specific viral inhibitor foun d in human serum. The antiviral agent in sera from four different spec ies appears to possess properties similar to those of UTIbeta, eg. mol ecular weight of 60 +/- 10 kDa, broad spectrum antiviral activity, gly coprotein structure with antiviral oligosaccharide moiety(s) attached to a carrier protein, and inhibition of most viruses by preventing the ir attachment to target cells. These findings suggest that UTIbeta or UTIbeta-like virus inhibitors are a normal component of the non-specif ic immune defenses of mammals.