Abstract
ALTHOUGH the MS-11 and CR3262 strains of human hepatitis A virus have been well characterised morphologically and shown to be indistinguishable, controversy has plagued characterisation of the GB agent of hepatitis3. Presumably derived from a surgeon with acute hepatitis, the GB agent has been transmitted serially in marmoset monkeys3 but has been shown to be unrelated serologically to any known human hepatitis virus4. Recently, Almeida et al.5 reported the detection after prolonged search of 20–22-nm particles aggregated by endogenous antibody in a pool of marmoset sera (pool H205, GB pass 11) known to contain the GB agent. These antibody-coated particles resembled parvoviruses morphologically, appeared in “empty”, “full”, and fragmented crescent-shaped forms, and were undetectable in normal marmoset serum. On the basis of previous filtration data from Deinhardt et al.6 which suggest that the GB agent is approximately 20 nm in diameter and the previous finding by others that anti-complementary activity—thought to represent the presence of circulating antigen–antibody complexes—occurs during acute viral hepatitis, Almeida et al. suggested that the virus-like particle they have detected is the GB agent5.
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DIENSTAG, J., WAGNER, J., PURCELL, R. et al. Virus-like particles and GB agent hepatitis. Nature 264, 260–261 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1038/264260a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/264260a0
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