Simian retroviruses (SRVs), the etiological agent of a spontaneous Simian acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, endemically infects large percentages of Asian macaques housed in biomedical research ...colonies and severely compromises the effective use of these species as a viable research animal. We recently described the molecular cloning of a serogroup 2 SRV, D2/RHE/OR, which causes mild immunosuppression in rhesus macaques. A restriction site variant, D2/RHE/OR/V1, has also been recovered from severely ill animals endemically infected with D2/RHE/OR. We now report the complete nucleotide sequences of D2/RHE/OR and D2/RHE/OR/V1. Both infectious molecular clones retain the genetic structure typical of type D SRVs (5′ LTR-gag-prt-pol-env-3′LTR) and encode identically sized 8105-bp proviruses. D2/RHE/OR and D2/RHE/OR/V1 are 99.3% similar at the amino acid level, exhibiting only 17 residue differences, of which 10 are located in the envelope glycoproteins. The molecular clones and reciprocal chimeric viruses were used to assess the contribution of different genetic domains to virus infectivity in a T cell infection assay. These experiments indicate that D2/RHE/OR has a reduced ability to infect specific T cell lines, especially Hut-78 and MT-4 cells, and that the envelope gene is not the sole determinant of in vitro tropism.
Fifty-nine patients with primary presentation of high-grade gliomas of the brain, 13 with astrocytomas with anaplastic foci and 46 with glioblastoma multiforme, were treated with surgical ...intervention and definitive postoperative radiation therapy followed by multiple intravenous administration of iodine-125-labeled monoclonal antibody-425, which binds specifically to human epidermal growth factor receptor. The total cumulative labeled antibody doses ranged from 40 to 296 mCi. The administration of the radiolabeled antibody was performed in most instances within 3 months following completion of the primary surgery and radiation therapy. No significant life-threatening toxicities were observed during the trial. At one year, 34 (58%) of the 59 patients in the trial were alive. The median overall survival for both groups was 13.5 months.
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