Methods and reagents to detect and characterize norwalk and related viruses

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION It is readily apparent to one skilled in the art that various substitutions and modifications may be made to the invention disclosed herein without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.
The term "fragment" as used herein is defined as a fragment of a genome or a subgenomic clone that is required to be expressed to produce a peptide fragment which might be able to induce a polyclonal or monoclonal antibody.
It is possible a peptide of only 5 amino acids could be immunogenic but usually peptides of 15 amino acids or longer are required.
This depends on the properties of the peptide and it cannot be predicted in advance.
The term "derivative" as used herein is defined as larger pieces of DNA or an additional cDNA which represents the Norwalk genome and which is detected by direct or sequential use of the original cDNA and any deduced amino acid sequences thereof.
Clone pUCNV-1011, therefore, is a derivative, although it does not overlap or share sequences with the original clone.
Also included within the definition of derivative are RNA counterparts of DNA fragments and DNA or cDNA fragments in which one or more bases have been substituted or to which labels and end structures have been added without affecting the reading or expression of the DNA or cDNA.
Production of Norwalk Virus for Molecular Cloning Norwalk virus was produced by administration of safety tested Norwalk virus (8FIIa) to adult volunteers.
The virus inoculum used in the volunteer study, was kindly supplied by Dr.
Albert Kapikian (Laboratory of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.
).
This virus originated from an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis in Norwalk, Ohio (Dolin et al.
, 1971).
Two ml of a 1 to 100 dilution of 8FIIa in TBS was administered orally to each individual with 80 ml of milli-Q water (Millipore, Bedford, Mass.
01730).
Sodium bicarbonate solution was taken by each person 2 minutes before and 5 minutes after virus administration