RHV, which is presumably a defective human retrovirus, has been recovered from the human melanoma cell line HMB2. In the presence of Moloney mouse leukemia virus (MLV), used as a helper, RHV is serially transmissible in mouse NIH-3T3 cells and can provide envelope antigens for vesicular stomatitis virus pseudotype--VSV(RHV). This pseudotype is neutralizable with an inhibitor, present in all human sera tested; the inhibitory activity is resistant to heating at 100 degrees C. To detect whether any specific response to RHV is connected with the disease, we isolated IgG from 140 human sera (70 melanoma patients and 70 control group donors) and tested it for neutralization of VSV(RHV) pseudotype in a randomized, blind experiment. Sixteen samples of IgG from the sera of melanoma patients, but only one control IgG, neutralized the pseudotype; this difference was significant (p less than 0.001). RHV thus appears to be in some way associated with melanoma.

Institute of Virology Slovak Academy of Sciences Bratislava Czechoslovakia

References provided by Crossref.org