Extraction of a Specific Antigen from the Virus of Lymphogranuloma venereum

Abstract

MANY studies have been made concerning the antigenic structure of viruses of the psittacosislymphogranuloma group as revealed by the complement-fixation technique ; these include experiments recently reported on the effect of various reagents on psittacosis virus¹. It was shown that 0·001 molar potassium periodate destroyed the serologically active heat-stable group antigen of heated virus suspensions, while leaving some reactivity, due to the labile specific component, in similar but unheated preparations. The possibility that skin tests might be used for demonstrating the specific behaviour of virus treated with the same reagent was considered, since it is recognized that the preparations which have been or are used for this method of diagnosing lymphogranuloma venereum^{2 3,4} produce skin reactions which are largely or entirely due to the group antigen^5,6. Heated yolk-sac suspensions of both psittacosis and lymphogranuloma venereum viruses have, in this laboratory, given closely parallel results in patients with lymphogranuloma venereum⁷.