Genetic comparison of LAV-related isolates.

LAV/HTLV-III has been found to be the etiological cause of AIDS. This new human retrovirus has a selective tropism for T lymphocytes of the OKT4/leu 3 subset, in which it induces a cytopathic effect. We have compared Southern blot patterns of integrated proviral DNAs from different individuals at risk or not using a nick-translated LAV probe.

Genomic variability of selected LAV-related AIDS retroviruses.

All AIDS retroviruses isolated from different patients have shown degrees of heterogeneity as defined by restriction fragment polymorphisms. Despite this variability, all these virus isolates share a number of structural features, including immunological cross-reactivity of virally encoded proteins. In this paper, we compare restriction patterns of integrated proviral DNA from viral isolates of patients belonging to different geographical groups, at risk or not for the disease.