Bae E H, Jung Y T
Acta Virol. 2014;58(1):53-60. doi: 10.4149/av_2014_01_53.
Pigs are considered as suitable xenotransplantation organ donors. However, the risk of pathogen transmission from pigs to human is a major concern in the transplantation of porcine tissues since it had been shown that porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) can infect human cells. Tetherin has recently been described as a host restriction factor that blocks the release of virus particles from cells infected with some enveloped viruses. We compared tetherins derived from various species in their activity against PERVs by using a pseudotype assay. The results showed that (i) mammalian tetherins inhibit spread of PERVs, (ii) murine and rhesus tetherins are weaker inhibitors than canine and feline ones, (iii) human tetherin is induced by interferon alpha (IFN-α) and (iv) IFN-α treatment of 293T-PERV-PK-CIRCE cells reduced PERV release. We conclude that transgenic overexpression of tetherin combined with its induction by IFN-α may reduce the risk of PERV dissemination in xenotransplantation.
猪被认为是合适的异种移植器官供体。然而，猪向人类传播病原体的风险是猪组织移植中的一个主要问题，因为已有研究表明猪内源性逆转录病毒（PERVs）可感染人类细胞。最近， tetherin被描述为一种宿主限制因子，可阻止病毒颗粒从感染某些包膜病毒的细胞中释放。我们通过假型试验比较了来自不同物种的tetherin对PERVs的活性。结果表明：（i）哺乳动物tetherin可抑制PERVs的传播；（ii）小鼠和恒河猴的tetherin比犬类和猫科动物的tetherin抑制作用弱；（iii）人tetherin由α干扰素（IFN-α）诱导产生；（iv）用IFN-α处理293T-PERV-PK-CIRCE细胞可减少PERV的释放。我们得出结论，tetherin的转基因过表达及其由IFN-α诱导可能会降低异种移植中PERV传播的风险。
