olecular weight 80,000 in H17 which bound antibodies from all of the human samples tested". They concluded: "These results show clearly that the antigens detected after virus infection are either virus-coded proteins or cellular antigens specifically induced by the infection". 3. The reaction with patient sera of the H4/HTLV-III cells was then compared with the reaction of the material from the H4/HTLV-III culture fluids which in sucrose density gradients banded at 1.16 gm/ml. Of the proteins which banded at 1.16 gm/ml, two, p41 and p24, were found to react with some patient sera. They concluded: "p24 and p41 may therefore be considered viral structural proteins"; 4. Finally, they used the ELISA [Footnote 2] technique to test for HTLV-III antibodies. 88% (43/49) of patients with AIDS, and 79% (11/14) patients with pre-AIDS but "less than 1 percent of heterosexual subjects", had antibodies "reactive against antigens of HTLV-III". "To understand the molecular nature of the antigens recognized by ELISA", the sera were analysed by WB. "...the antigen most prominently and commonly detected among all of the sera from AIDS patients had a molecular weight of 41,000 (p41)...Reactivity to p24 of the virus was generally very weak and was clear only in two cases". From the above data it is obvious that by HTLV-III (HIV) isolation was meant detection of more than one of the following phenomena: 1. RT, either in the culture fluids, or in the material from these fluids or cellular lysates which in sucrose density gradients band at 1.16 gm/ml; 2. In culture fluids, but not in the material which bands at 1.16 gm/ml, particles with morphological characteristics of retroviruses (RVP); 3. Proteins, (p41, and in some cases, p24), which, in sucrose density gradients, band at 1.16 gm/ml, (but without proof that they are unique constituent parts of the particle), and react with patient sera. However, isolation is defined as separating an object, (HIV), from ev...
