PMID: 9532836Jan 1, 1997Paper

Coevolutive mechanisms between retroviruses and their hosts. The murine mammary tumor model

Medicina
Irene NepomnaschyIsabel Piazzon

Abstract

Mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) is a type B retrovirus that is transmitted as an infectious milk-borne particle and that causes mammary carcinomas by insertional activation of cellular protooncogenes. Germ line infections result in endogenous Mtv proviruses integrated in the genome of most mouse strains. These endogenous proviruses have been integrated into the genomes of mice for only the past 3-5 million years. The open reading frame present in the 3' long terminal repeat (LTR) of the provirus encodes a superantigen (SAg) which is able to stimulate a large proportion of T cells sharing a common T-cell receptor beta chain variable domain (v beta). Expression of this SAg is critical to the MMTV life cycle. After expression of the SAg in B cells a significant number of T cells are recruited to respond to these MMTV infected cells. As a consequence both the T cells expressing the relevant TCR V beta domain and the infected B cells become activated and start dividing. This would facilitate integration of MMTV and amplify the number of virus infected lymphocytes. Most likely during lactation the mammary glands become receptive to viral infection. The presence of endogenous Mtvs induces an early clonal deletion of reactive T cells....Continue Reading

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