Virion envelope glycoproteins as epidermiological markers of Venezuelan encephalitis virus isolates

Abstract

Virion polypeptide compositions of 26 isolates of Venezuelan encephalitis virus were analyzed by a reproducible and comparative technique of discontinuous sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide slab gel electrophoresis. Although the MW of the core polypeptide for each isolate was 36,000, numbers and MW of envelope glycoproteins were heterogeneous. Isolates associated with human, but not equine, disease usually had 2 glycoproteins of 50,000-51,000 and 51,000-55,000 MW, while isolates associated with both human and equine disease usually had an additional 3rd polypeptide band of 45,000-46,000 or 56,000-58,000 MW. The former isolates were in hemagglutination inhibition subtypes I-D, I-E, III or IV, and the latter were in subtypes I-A, I-B, I-C or II. Thus virion envelope glycoproteins should be useful markers of Venezuelan encephalitis virus isolates in epidemiological investigations.