Akter Lipi, Hashem Md Abul, Kayesh Mohammad Enamul Hoque, Rakib Tofazzal Md, Rashid Md Haroon Or, Maetani Fumie, Kohara Kyoko-Tsukiyama
Transboundary Animal Diseases Center, Joint Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, 890-0065, Japan.
Laboratory of Animal Hygiene, Joint Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, 890-0065, Japan.
Virus Genes. 2025 Jun 26. doi: 10.1007/s11262-025-02169-9.
Koala retrovirus (KoRV) causes multiple disease phenotypes in koalas, including carcinogenesis. The study aimed to assess oncogene expression in spleen tissues from ten deceased koalas coinfected with different subtypes and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from two subclinically coinfected koalas with KoRV-A and KoRV-B. Initially, KoRV subtyping involved amplifying endogenous KoRV-A, and exogenous KoRV-B, -C specific env gene fragments, followed by sequencing. Using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), we examined five oncogenes (BCL2, BAX, BCL2L1, BCL3, and MYC) in spleen and PBMCs from dead and alive koalas coinfected with multiple KoRV subtypes, respectively. Significant (p < 0.05) increases in BCL2 and BAX oncogene expression were observed in deceased koalas that were coinfected with multiple KoRV subtypes compared with healthy koalas. Thus, this study highlights a potential link between KoRV subtype infections, oncogene expression, and koala diseases.
考拉逆转录病毒（KoRV）在考拉身上引发多种疾病表型，包括致癌作用。该研究旨在评估来自十只感染不同亚型的死亡考拉的脾脏组织以及来自两只亚临床感染KoRV - A和KoRV - B的考拉的外周血单个核细胞（PBMC）中的癌基因表达。最初，KoRV亚型分型包括扩增内源性KoRV - A以及外源性KoRV - B、C特异性env基因片段，随后进行测序。我们使用定量实时聚合酶链反应（RT - qPCR），分别检测了来自感染多种KoRV亚型的死亡和存活考拉的脾脏及PBMC中的五个癌基因（BCL2、BAX、BCL2L1、BCL3和MYC）。与健康考拉相比，在感染多种KoRV亚型的死亡考拉中观察到BCL2和BAX癌基因表达显著（p < 0.05）增加。因此，本研究突出了KoRV亚型感染、癌基因表达与考拉疾病之间的潜在联系。
