New HHV-6 reagent at the HHV-6 Foundation
Dear HHV-6 research community and colleagues,
We are pleased to announce that with the help of a few HHV-6 specialists, especially Prof. Louis Flamand from Canada, we have generated the monoclonal antibody DR-7. DR-7 is an oncoprotein, the polyclonal antibody to which has previously detected HHV-6B staining in Reed Sternberg cells of the nodular sclerosis subtype of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Dr. Flamand generated four DR-7 hybridomas and produced the mab, which his lab then purified over the IgG protein G column. The mouse DR-7 hybridomas produced IgG and are all kappa. In addition, these antibodies have been isotyped, and the purified DR-7 mab (titer of >1:1280) reacted by IFA and WB against DR-6 proteins of HHV-6A and HHV-6B and has also recognized eptitopes encoded by the second exon of the DR-6 gene previously referred as DR-7 (Kashanshi, et.al, 1997). Prof. David Hundall from Yale initially tested these four mabs of the DR-7 hybridomas and found two reactive by IHG on formalin fixed MOLT-3 infected with the Z-29 (HHV-6B) strain (33B12, 37D12).
We feel this will be a very valuable tool to screen malignant tumors, not only in the context of HL but also in other tumors such as gliomas and neuroblastomas to assess the onogenic role of HHV-6. The antibody has been sent out to selected investigators to obtain more IHC data. Soon the mab will be deposited in the NIH AIDS Repository of Reagents and will be available free of charge. We encourage you to obtain the DR-7 mab for your research. Ms. Jill Chase, our HHV-6 reagents repository manager, can help in case you have specific questions. More data will be available at a later date.
Dharam Ablashi
HHV-6 Foundation