Non-Simian Foamy Viruses: Molecular Virology, Tropism and Prevalence and Zoonotic/Interspecies Transmission

Viruses

Timo Kehl²  Juan Tan¹ 

[1] College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, 94 Weijin Road, Tianjin 300071, China; E-Mail:;German Cancer Research Center, INF242, Heidelberg 69120, Germany

关键词: foamy virus;    interspecies transmission;    FV tropism;    zoonotic potential;    animal FVs;   

DOI  :  10.3390/v5092169

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Within the field of retrovirus, our knowledge of foamy viruses (FV) is still limited. Their unique replication strategy and mechanism of viral persistency needs further research to gain understanding of the virus-host interactions, especially in the light of the recent findings suggesting their ancient origin and long co-evolution with their nonhuman hosts. Unquestionably, the most studied member is the primate/prototype foamy virus (PFV) which was originally isolated from a human (designated as human foamy virus, HFV), but later identified as chimpanzee origin; phylogenetic analysis clearly places it among other Old World primates. Additionally, the study of non-simian animal FVs can contribute to a deeper understanding of FV-host interactions and development of other animal models. The review aims at highlighting areas of special interest regarding the structure, biology, virus-host interactions and interspecies transmission potential of primate as well as non-primate foamy viruses for gaining new insights into FV biology.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.