The role of viral oncoprotein expression in the maintenance of cellular transformation was examined as a function of time through controlled expression of simian virus 40 T antigen (TAg). Expression of TAg in the submandibular gland of transgenic mice from the time of birth induced cellular transformation and extensive ductal hyperplasia by 4 months of age. The hyperplasia was reversed when TAg expression was silenced for 3 weeks. When TAg expression was silenced after 7 months, however, the hyperplasia persisted even though TAg was absent. Although the polyploidy of ductal cells could be reversed at 4 months of age, cells at 7 months of age remained polyploid even in the absence of TAg. These results support a model of time-dependent multistep tumorigenesis, in which virally transformed cells eventually lose their dependence on the viral oncoprotein for maintenance of the transformed state.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed for the detection of Echinococcus coproantigens in fecal samples from dogs, dingoes or foxes infected with either E. granulosus or E. multilocularis. The ELISA was based on protein-A-purified polyclonal antibodies [anti-E. granulosus excretory/secretory (E/S) antigens]. The specificity of the assay as determined in 155 samples derived from carnivores that were free of helminth infection (n = 37) or infected with non-Echinococcus cestodes (n = 76) or with various nematodes (n = 42) was found to be 98% overall. The diagnostic sensitivity was strongly dependent on the homologous worm burden. All 13 samples from foxes harboring greater than 1,000 E. multilocularis worms and 13 of 15 (87%) samples from dogs or dingoes containing greater than 200 E. granulosus worms were ELISA-positive, whereas 34 of 46 samples from foxes harboring less than 1,000 E. multilocularis and 9 of 10 samples from dogs or dingoes bearing less than 200 E. granulosus tested negative. Experimental prepatent infections of dogs with E. granulosus revealed positive ELISA reactions within the prepatent period (10-20 days post-infection) for six animals bearing greater than 1,000 E. granulosus each; a low worm burden (less than 1,000 tapeworms/animal) resulted in ELISA positivity in only 2 of 3 animals at 30 days post-infection at the earliest. All five dogs that had been experimentally infected with E. multilocularis tested positive in the coproantigen ELISA as early as on day 5 post-infection.

No abstract

In the Canton of Zurich in Switzerland, 1,252 red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) were examined during 1990-1991 for intestinal stages of Echinococcus multilocularis using the mucosal smear technique. Special safety precautions were employed during examination. An average of 35% (432 foxes) were infected, mostly with low to medium numbers of gravid worms producing thick-shelled eggs. In the eleven districts of the Canton, prevalence rates varied between 13% and 57%. An average of 29% of the foxes had antibodies in serum or body fluid against a highly species-specific antigen of E. multilocularis (Em2-antigen).The fact that foxes with intestinal E. multilocularis infection have been found in all parts of the Canton of Zurich indicates a relatively high potential infection risk for humans, but apparently the risk is reduced by certain extrinsic or intrinsic factors which have yet to be determined.