Production of envelop antigen of lymphadenopathy and acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus and use of the antigen for preparing immunogen composition or detecting antibody against the virus

PURPOSE: To obtain the subject antigen effective for diagnosing and treating lymphadenopathy and acquired immune deficiency syndrome, by recovering an expressed product of a cultured cell transformed with a vector containing a DNA encoding a polypeptide obtained from a retrovirus envelop. CONSTITUTION: In this method for producing an antigen comprising a polypeptide which has a polypeptide skeleton of a glycoprotein having about 110,000 or an antigen of lower molecular weight derived from the preceding one, is recognized by a human serum containing an antibody against retrovirus (LAV) envelop encoded by a nucleic acid to be hybridized with a nucleic acid fragment between 5767 and 7314 of a nucleotide of the formula, a cultured cell capable of expressing a retrovirus DNA encoding the corresponding polypeptide is transformed with a vector varied with the LAV-DNA sequence, an expression product is recovered from the cultured cell and the product is separated from other expression products to give an envelop antigen of lymphadenopathy and acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus. COPYRIGHT: (C)1995,JPO