δ Agent: Association of δ Antigen with Hepatitis B Surface Antigen and RNA in Serum of δ -Infected Chimpanzees

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 77; no. 10; pp. 6124 - 6128
• Main Authors: Rizzetto, Mario, Hoyer, Bill, Canese, Maria G., Shih, J. Wai-Kuo, Purcell, Robert H., Gerin, John L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 01.10.1980; National Acad Sciences
• Subjects: Animals; Antibodies; Antigens; Antiserum; Electron microscopy; Hepatitis antigens; Hepatitis B - metabolism; Hepatitis B Antigens - analysis; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens - analysis; Hepatitis B virus; Hepatitis delta Antigens; Infections; Molecular Weight; Nucleic acids; Pan troglodytes; Radioimmunoassay; RNA; RNA, Viral - metabolism
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.77.10.6124

The hepatitis B virus-associated β antigen was found in the serum of experimentally infected chimpanzees as an internal component of a discrete subpopulation of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) particles. The 35- to 37-nm particles banded in CsCl at 1.24-1.25 g/cm3 and sedimented with a mobility intermediate between that of the hepatitis B virion and that of the 22-nm form of HBsAg. The particles contained only indistinct internal structure by electron microscopy and were not unique to δ agent infection, similar particles without δ -antigen activity being observed in the preinfection serum of HBsAg carrier chimpanzees. A small RNA (Mr,5× 105) was temporally associted with δ antigen in the serum of infected chimpanzees and copurified with the δ -antigen-associated particles. This RNA is smaller than the genomes of known RNA viruses but larger than the viroids of higher plants.