Suboptimal porcine endogenous retrovirus infection in non-human primate cells: implication for preclinical xenotransplantation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV) poses a potential risk of zoonotic infection in xenotransplantation. Preclinical transplantation trials using non-human primates (NHP) as recipients of porcine xenografts present the opportunity to assess the zoonosis risk in vivo. However, PERV poorly infects NHP cells for unclear reasons and therefore NHP may represent a suboptimal animal model to assess the risk of PERV zoonoses. We investigated the mechanism responsible for the low efficiency of PERV-A infection in NHP cells.

Principal findings

Two steps, cell entry and exit, were inefficient for the replication of high-titer, human-tropic A/C recombinant PERV. A restriction factor, tetherin, is likely to be responsible for the block to matured virion release, supported by

SUBMITTER: Mattiuzzo G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2950858 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature