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Replication study in France

Overstressed

Senior Member
Messages
406
Location
Belgium
I don't know whether this has been posted earlier, here is the link:

http://www.retrovirology.com/content/7/1/63

What catched my attention is this:

"(...) XMRV displays more than 90% sequence identity with MLV and harbors distinct amino acid substitutions and a short deletion in the gag leader region. Strikingly, these combined features lead to a putative absence of glycoGag, an alternative open reading frame of the gag gene that has been shown to play a role in MLV replication and pathogenesis..."

If I understand this correctly, replication and disease making genes are missing in this virus. On the other hand, we know that gammaretroviruses are used for gene therapy. Could it be that this virus is a lab accident, and found it's way somehow into humans ? Another virus-family, the lentiviruses, of which HIV is the most well known one, also integrate easily into human gnome.

Could it be ... ?

OS.
 

eric_s

Senior Member
Messages
1,925
Location
Switzerland/Spain (Valencia)
I don't know whether this has been posted earlier, here is the link:

http://www.retrovirology.com/content/7/1/63

What catched my attention is this:

"(...) XMRV displays more than 90% sequence identity with MLV and harbors distinct amino acid substitutions and a short deletion in the gag leader region. Strikingly, these combined features lead to a putative absence of glycoGag, an alternative open reading frame of the gag gene that has been shown to play a role in MLV replication and pathogenesis..."

If I understand this correctly, replication and disease making genes are missing in this virus. On the other hand, we know that gammaretroviruses are used for gene therapy. Could it be that this virus is a lab accident, and found it's way somehow into humans ? Another virus-family, the lentiviruses, of which HIV is the most well known one, also integrate easily into human gnome.

Could it be ... ?

OS.

Aren't there only 2 other known human retroviruses, HTLV and HIV? So how can gammaretroviruses be used for gene therapy? Which gammaretroviruses? Non-human ones?
 

Cort

Phoenix Rising Founder
"(...) XMRV displays more than 90% sequence identity with MLV and harbors distinct amino acid substitutions and a short deletion in the gag leader region. Strikingly, these combined features lead to a putative absence of glycoGag, an alternative open reading frame of the gag gene that has been shown to play a role in MLV replication and pathogenesis..."

I think other factors also effect replication and pathogenesis - they are not all wrapped up in glycoGag.
 

Overstressed

Senior Member
Messages
406
Location
Belgium
Well, I truly don't know. It is said that gammaretroviruses are ideal because they deliver the goods very reliable and easy. These viruses are gene manipulated as well. Maybe, during lab experiments these viruses jumped to human, who knows.

OS.