The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 21, 1999
Filed:
Aug. 15, 1994
Benjamin Rovinski, Thornhill, CA;
Shi-Xian Cao, Etobicoke, CA;
Fei-Long Yao, North York, CA;
Roy Persson, North York, CA;
Michel H Klein, Willowdale, CA;
Connaught Laboratories Limited, North York, CA;
Abstract
The present invention is concerned with the ability to differentiate between infection by HIV and immunization with an immunogenic preparation. Accordingly, the present invention provides a non-infectious, non-replicating, HIV retrovirus-like particle containing a heterologous antigenic marker, comprising an assembly of (a) an env gene product; (b) a pol gene product; (c) a gag gene product; and, (d) at least one non-retroviral, non-mammalian antigenic marker. The antigenic marker may have between 5 and 100 amino acid residues. In one embodiment, the amino acid sequence contains a tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) epitope obtained from the coat protein. In another embodiment, the marker is inserted into the gag gene product at an antigenically-active insertion site. The presence of the antigenic marker enables recognition that antiserum containing anti-HIV antibodies has been generated by exposure to the non-infectious retrovirus-like particles, as opposed to wild-type HIV infection, by testing for antibodies specific to the antigenic marker.