ACCUMULATION OF A CELLULAR PROTEIN BEARING C-MYC-LIKE ANTIGENICITY IN HEPATIC AND NONHEPATIC DELTA-ANTIGEN EXPRESSING CELLS

Patients with chronic but not acute hepatitis delta virus infection undergo a strong accumulation of a protein of cellular origin which specifically reacts with a panel of anti-c-myc antibodies and which is expressed in the same nuclei that express the delta antigen. In this paper we report on the in vitro characterization of this phenomenon. The delta antigen induced c-myc antigen accumulation can occur in vitro upon transfection of HBsAg positive and negative cell lines with HDAg expression vectors. Using recombinant vaccinia viruses expressing only p24 or p27 we demonstrate that structures common to the two isoforms of HDAg are responsible for the phenomenon, which is not restricted to cells of hepatic origin.