Which diseases are caused by retroviruses?
Diseases in animals or humans which are induced by or associated with horizontally-transmitted exogenous retroviruses, include feline leukemias or sarcomas, chicken leukemias or sarcomas, mouse leukemias or sarcomas, equine infectious anemia, bovine leukemia, caprine arthritis-encephalitis, human adult T-cell leukemia.
What is the difference between a retrovirus and an endogenous retrovirus?
The term ‘endogenous retrovirus’ does not refer to a biological entity distinct from other retroviruses, but simply describes any DNA provirus, retroviral in origin, that has found its way into an organismal germline. This is true regardless of whether the provirus is still capable of expressing infectious virions.
Does a retrovirus cause lifelong infection?
Retroviral infection is normally lifelong, in part due to the propensity of retroviral genomes to irreversibly integrate into host DNA.
What does KoRV do to koalas?
Diseases in koalas putatively linked to KoRV include chlamydial infertility and mortality; a range of opportunistic infectious diseases; blood and bone marrow disorders (myelodysplasia); and neoplasia (e.g. lymphoma and leukaemia, mesothelial and craniofacial tumours) (Hanger et al. 2003; Tarlinton et al. 2005).
What other viruses are retroviruses?
Besides human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS, there a two other retroviruses that can cause human illness. One is called human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) and the other is called human T-lymphotropic virus type 2 (HTLV-II).
What do endogenous retroviruses do?
Endogenous retroviruses can play an active role in shaping genomes. Most studies in this area have focused on the genomes of humans and higher primates, but other vertebrates, such as mice and sheep, have also been studied in depth.
What is the function of endogenous retroviruses?
Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) have recently been suggested as mediators of normal biological processes such as cellular differentiation and regulation of gene expression. Moreover, a direct role for HERVs in pathogenesis and the development of disease is now better appreciated.
Do koalas have chlamydia?
Chlamydia in koalas is caused by two kinds of bacteria, Chlamydia pecorum and C. pneumoniae, which are different from the bacteria that usually causes the disease in humans.
How is KoRV spread?
In animals with less than one proviral copy per cell, KoRV infection was likely acquired exogenously from one animal to another. The mode of transmission of KoRV among koalas is not known, but might involve animal-animal contact or arthropod transmission.