Abstract
Retroviruses belong to an important and diverse family of RNA viruses capable of causing neoplastic disease in their hosts. Feline leukaemia virus (FeLV) is a gammaretrovirus that infects domestic and wild cats, causing immunodeficiency, cytopenia and neoplasia in progressively infected cats. The outcome of FeLV infection is influenced by the host immune response; progressively infected cats demonstrate weaker immune responses compared to regressively infected cats. In this study, humoral immune responses were examined in 180 samples collected from 123 domestic cats that had been naturally exposed to FeLV, using a novel ELISA to measure antibodies recognizing the FeLV surface unit (SU) glycoprotein in plasma samples. A correlation was demonstrated between the strength of the humoral immune response to the SU protein and the outcome of exposure. Cats with regressive infection demonstrated higher antibody responses to the SU protein compared to cats belonging to other outcome groups, and samples from cats with regressive infection contained virus neutralising antibodies. These results demonstrate that an ELISA that assesses the humoral response to FeLV SU complements the use of viral diagnostic tests to define the outcome of exposure to FeLV. Together these tests could allow the rapid identification of regressively infected cats that are unlikely to develop FeLV-related disease.
Highlights
The aim of this study was to assess the utility of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) measuring the humoral immune response to Feline leukaemia virus (FeLV) surface unit (SU) to predict the outcome of FeLV exposure, testing sequential samples collected from shelter cats at high risk of FeLV infection
Cats were enrolled in the study if they tested positive for p27 capsid antigen using anticoagulated whole blood on the IDEXX SNAP® FIV/FeLV Combo Test (IDEXX Laboratories, Inc., Westbrook, ME, USA) when screened on admission to the Austin Pets Alive!
The SU-Fc proteins were detected in the pre- and post-purification fractions and were absent from the detected thewash, pre- and post-purification fractions were absent from ultrafiltrate waste and in indicating that expression andand purification were suc-the ultrafiltrate waste and phosphate buffered saline (PBS) wash, indicating that expression and purification were successful
Summary
FeLV can be isolated from the saliva, urine and faeces of viraemic cats and activities such as grooming, fighting and the shared use of food bowls and litter trays facilitates horizontal transmission via the oronasal route [1,2,3,4]. The prevalence of FeLV has decreased greatly as a result of effective vaccination and identification and segregation of infected cats, but remains high (ranging from 5 to 20%) in at-risk groups such as sick cats and cats from multi-cat households [5,6]. FeLVs exist as a group of viruses distinguished by their SU glycoprotein gene sequences, which influence receptor usage, tissue tropism and, disease outcome. FeLV-A is thought to be the predominant transmissible form of FeLV, whereas subgroups FeLV-B and FeLV-C arise de novo in FeLV-A-infected cats following recombination with endogenous FeLV sequences and mutation, respectively.
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