CHARACTERIZATION OF FOUR NEW ADENOVIRUS SEROTYPES ISOLATED FROM CHIMPANZEE TISSUE EXPLANTS

Basnight, M., Jr. (NINDS, NIH, Bethesda, Md. 20014), N. G. Rogers, C. J. Gibbs, Jr. and D. C. Gajdusek. haracterization of four new adenovirus serotypes isolated from chimpanzee tissue explants. Amer J Epidem 94: 166–171, 1971.—Four new latent adenovirus serotypes were isolated from explanted lymph nodes of chimpanzees in the late stages of experimental kuru and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. These viruses induced typical adenovirus cytopathology in human embryonic kidney cell cultures and fixed complement in the presence of human adenovirus antiserum. They had the biochemical and physical characteristics of adenoviruses; they propagated better in cell cultures of human than in those of simian origin. They were not neutralized by antisera of known human and simian adenovirus types and were immunologically distinct from each other. The viruses are not believed to be the agents of the experimental kuru or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the chimpanzees from which they were isolated, although these animals developed homologous neutralizing antibodies during the course of their disease. Neutralizing antibodies to these new adenovirus serotypes were also found in normal chimpanzees, but were absent from sera of animal handlers who had been in close contact with the chimpanzees for 1–3 years.