Although the events which predispose a host to measles virus persistence remain largely unknown,
measles antibody has been shown to contribute to the production of a
persistent infection by this virus both in vivo and in vitro. Thus, the addition of
measles antibody to cells infected with measles virus promotes virus persistence. Latent
measles infection occurs in newborn hamsters with maternally acquired antibody after inoculation with measles virus in the immediate neonatal period. A subacute
encephalitis with measles virus persistence has been induced in weanling BALB/c mice that received antibody after virus inoculation and in
measles-immune primates infected with a virus derived from a patient with
subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. Measles virus consists of six
polypeptides, and treatment of
measles-infected cells with antibody has been shown to alter the pattern of their synthesis. As the
antigenic specificity of the antibody responsible for these observations is not known, we decided to investigate the effects of
monoclonal antibodies directed against the individual
measles polypeptides. We report here that a
monoclonal antibody directed against the virus haemagglutinin, unlike an antibody to the virus
nucleocapsid protein, is able to induce a subacute
encephalitis in vivo.