A new type of retrovirus isolated from patients presenting with lymphadenopathy and acquired immune deficiency syndrome: Structural and antigenic relatedness with equine infectious anemia virus.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Montagnier, Dauguet,... Barré-Sinoussi. In this paper Montagnier and colleagues showed that, contrary to the views of Gallo and his group, LAV (Lymphadenopathy Associated Virus) was not antigenically related to HTLV, that it was very antigenically and morphologically related to EIAV (Equine Infectious Anemia Virus), a lentivirus, and that the p25 protein of LAV is not related to the p24 protein of HTLV. They also showed that the EM morphology of LAV is very similar to EIAV, as are its dimensions, that LAV has a strict tropism for OKT4 helper lymphocytes (See No. 11042). They also showed that when LAV infects a cell line it is lytic for those cells, whereas HTLVs immortalize the cells.

See also the following paper by the authors presented at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories on September 15, 1983: "A new human lymphotropic retrovirus: Characterization and possible role in lymphadenopathy and acquired immune deficiency syndromes," published as pp.363-369 in Gallo, R.C.; Essex, M., Gross, L., eds., Human T-cell leukemia/lymphoma virus. Cold Spring Harbor, NY, 1984.

(Thanks for Juan Weiss for this entry and its interpretation.)