The Friend virus (FV) is a strain of
murine leukemia virus identified by
Charlotte Friend in 1957.
The virus infects adult
immunocompetent
In immunology, immunocompetence is the ability of the body to produce a normal immune response following exposure to an antigen. Immunocompetence is the opposite of immunodeficiency (also known as ''immuno-incompetence'' or being ''immuno-compro ...
mice and is a well-established model for studying genetic resistance to
infection
An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dis ...
by an
immunosuppressive
Immunosuppression is a reduction of the activation or efficacy of the immune system. Some portions of the immune system itself have immunosuppressive effects on other parts of the immune system, and immunosuppression may occur as an adverse reacti ...
retrovirus. The Friend virus has been used for both immunotherapy and
vaccines
A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified.[< ...]
. It is a member of the
retroviridae
A retrovirus is a type of virus that inserts a DNA copy of its RNA genome into the DNA of a host cell that it invades, thus changing the genome of that cell. Once inside the host cell's cytoplasm, the virus uses its own reverse transcriptase ...
group of viruses, with its
nucleic acid being
ssRNA.
Vaccination
Experiments have shown that it is possible to protect against Friend virus infection with several types of vaccines, including
attenuated virus
An attenuated vaccine (or a live attenuated vaccine, LAV) is a vaccine created by reducing the virulence of a pathogen, but still keeping it viable (or "live"). Attenuation takes an infectious agent and alters it so that it becomes harmless or less ...
es, viral proteins,
peptides, and recombinant vaccinia vectors expressing the Friend virus gene. In a study of vaccinated mice, it was possible to identify the immunological epitopes required for protection against the virus, thus determining the types of immunological responses necessary or required for protection against it. The research discovered protective epitopes that were localized to F-MuLV gag and env proteins. This was achieved using recombinant vaccinia viruses expressing the gag and env genes of FV.
Implications
Friend virus models showed valuable information regarding genetic resistance to retroviral disease. A particular
gene
In biology, the word gene (from , ; "... Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a b ...
of interest is the Rfv-3 gene, which cause susceptibility to suppression of the FV specific antibody response. The greater understanding by which the mechanisms work may aid in the development of immunotherapies and vaccines that may be applicable to human diseases.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Friend Virus
Gammaretroviruses