1 Prototype Foamy Virus (PFV) Gag nuclear localization – A novel pathway among 1 retroviruses 2 3 Erik Müllers, Kristin Stirnnagel, Sylvia Kaulfuß, and Dirk Lindemann* 4 5 Institut für Virologie, Medizinische Fakultät "Carl Gustav Carus", Technische Universität 6 Dresden, Dresden, CRTD / DFG-Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden Cluster of 7 Excellence, Biotechnology Center, Dresden, German...

AIM To examine peripheral blood and skeletal muscle from patients with chronic fatigue syndrome for exogenous retrovirus. METHODS Blood samples from 30 patients and muscle biopsy specimens of 15 patients were examined for retroviral sequences by DNA extraction, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and Southern blotting hybridisation. Sera were examined for human foamy virus by western immunoblott...

Foamy viruses are frequently found in non-human primates and apes in captivity. However, data on simian foamy virus (SFV) infection in apes from the wild are limited. Necropsy specimens were collected from 14 West African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) from three communities in the Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire. PCR analysis revealed SFV-related int- and env-specific sequences in 12/14 ...

The interactions between a retrovirus and host cell chromatin that underlie integration and provirus expression are poorly understood. The prototype foamy virus (PFV) structural protein GAG associates with chromosomes via a chromatin-binding sequence (CBS) located within its C-terminal region. Here, we show that the PFV CBS is essential and sufficient for a direct interaction with nucleosomes a...

The zoonotic introduction of an animal pathogen into the human population and the subsequent extension or alteration of its host range leading to the successful maintenance of the corresponding pathogen by human-to-human transmission pose a serious risk for world-wide health care. Such a scenario occurred for instance by the introduction of simian immunodeficiency viruses into the human populat...

Foamy virus (FV) Bel1/Tas transactivators act as key regulators of gene expression and directly bind DNA Bel1 response elements (BREs) in both the internal (IP) and 5'LTR promoters. Here, we report the mapping and the virus species specificity of the nonhomologous feline foamy virus (FFV) BREs in both promoters. The data indicate that FFV Bel1 did not bind the primate FV IP.BRE and that primate...

The radiological finding of mediastinal lymph node enlargement following surgery for lung cancer often signifies locoregional recurrence. The use of oxidised cellulose haemostatic agents (OCHAs) during staging mediastinoscopy is common. We report a case of 18-fluorodeoxyglucose-avid subcarinal lymphadenopathy in a patient in whom OCHAs had been used at mediastinoscopy 5 months earlier. Histopat...

Prototype foamy virus (PFV) is a member of the unconventional and nonpathogenic retroviruses. PFV causes lifelong chronic infections, which are partially attributable to a number of host cell factors that restrict viral replication. Herein, we identified human p53-induced RING-H2 protein (Pirh2) as a novel inhibitor of prototype foamy virus. Overexpression of Pirh2 decreased the replication of ...

Foamy viruses (FVs) harbour a transcriptional transactivator (Tas) and two Tas-responsive promoter regions, one in the 5' long terminal repeat (LTR) and the other an internal promoter (IP) in the envelope gene. To analyse the mechanism of transactivation of the FVs, the specificity of feline FV (FFV) Tas protein, which is more distantly related to the respective proteins of non-human primate or...

Recent evidence indicates that foamy viruses (FVs) are the oldest retroviruses (RVs) that we know and coevolved with their hosts for several hundred million years. This coevolution may have contributed to the non-pathogenicity of FVs, an important factor in development of foamy viral vectors in gene therapy. However, various questions on the molecular evolution of FVs remain still unanswered. T...