A B-cell, Burkitt-type lymphoma, diffusely affecting the peripheral nerves and intramuscular nerve branches was diagnosed in a 4-year-old domestic shorthair cat with a chronic progressive history of flaccid tetraparesis and generalized muscle atrophy. There was no evidence of cranial nerve, central nervous system, radicular, bone marrow, splenic, or lymph node involvement. The cat tested negati...

The feline retroviruses, FeLV and FIV, today are well recognized for their ability to cause profound immune-suppressive disease in cats throughout the world. Clearly among the most complex infections affecting the cat, a retroviral infection demands an immune response that is robust and sustained if the infected cat is to survive long-term. Both innate immune responses (neutrophils, macrophages...

Simian T-lymphotropic retroviruses with structural, antigenic, and cytopathic features similar to the etiologic agent of human acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, human T-lymphotropic virus type III/lymphadenopathy-associated virus (HTLV-III/LAV), have been isolated from a variety of primate species including African green monkeys (STLV-IIIAGM). This report describes nucleic acid cross-reactivi...

Unexpected meeting of two separate lines of research resulted in the discovery of oncogenes. Oncogenes are deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequences coding for polypeptide gene products which cause, or contribute to, neoplastic growth of cells. Oncogenes remain almost unchanged through evolution: oncogenes and their gene products of avian, murine, feline, simian and human species show close homolog...

The interplay between viral and host proteins has been well studied to elucidate virus-host interactions and their relevance to virulence. Mammalian genes encode apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing enzyme catalytic polypeptide-like 3 (APOBEC3) proteins, which act as intrinsic restriction factors against lentiviruses. To overcome APOBEC3-mediated antiviral actions, lentiviruses have evolutionarily acq...

s and Reporfs 215 the virus envelope. These three genes are flanked by sequences repeated on both ends of the genome, known as long terminal repeats (LIR), which contain regulatory elements for transcription. Morphologically, oncoviruses have been subdivided into three groups, referred to as type B, C, and D particles. Type C oncoviruses include, among others, the murine, avian, and feline leuk...

Development of safe and effective gene transfer systems is critical to the success of gene therapy protocols for human diseases. Currently, several primate lentivirus-based gene transfer systems, such as those based on human and simian immunodeficiency viruses (HIV/SIV), are being tested; however, their use in humans raises safety concerns, such as the generation of replication-competent viruse...

The feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and leukemia (FeLV) may cause persistent, lifelong lethal infections in domestic wild felids worldwide. FIV has been confirmed most Felidae species, while FeLV infection is rare among non-domestic cats. view that retroviruses are pathogenic cats but not other free-ranging felid species was disproved by recent findings of retroviral pathology several felid...