ANTIGENIC RELATEDNESS BETWEEN OVINE PROGRESSIVE PNEUMONIA VIRUS (OPPV) AND HIV-1

The antigenic relatedness between ovine progressive pneumonia virus (O PPV), a lentivirus that infects sheep, and human immunodeficiency viru s (HIV-1) was examined by immunoblot analysis. Fourteen of 20 sheep se ra, that were positive for OPPV antibodies on an immunodiffusion test, reacted with HIV-1 p24 on a commercial blot of HIV-1 and cell lysate proteins (Virostat, Portland, Maine). Sheep OPPV antisera did not bind to cellular antigens on a negative control blot of cellular proteins. There was no correlation between the ability to bind to HIV-1 p24 and the status of disease in the sheep. Twenty human anti-HIV-1 sera and two human HIV-1 negative sera were tested on OPPV and cell lysate (OPP V-CON) and cell lysate (CON) protein blots. None of the human serum sa mples tested reacted to OPPV specific proteins.