The Molecular Biology of Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV)

Abstract

Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is widespread in feline populations and causes an AIDS-like illness in domestic cats. It is highly prevalent in several endangered feline species. In domestic cats FIV infection is a valuable small animal model for HIV infection. In recent years there has been sa significant increase in interest in FIV, in part to exploit this, but also because of the potential it has as a human gene therapy vector. Though much less studied than HIV there are many parallels in the replication of the two viruses, but also important differences and, despite their likely common origin, the viruses have in some cases used alternative strategies to overcome similar problems. Recent advances in understanding the structure and function of FIV RNA and proteins and their interactions has enhanced our knowledge of FIV replication significantly, however, there are still many gaps. This review summarizes our current knowledge of FIV molecular biology and its similarities with, and differences from, other lentiviruses.

Interaction of FIV with Heterologous Microbes in the Feline AIDS Model

“…Feline AIDS (FAIDS) induced by feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is the only natural small animal model of human AIDS [4,[5][6][7][8]. FIV shares many genetic, structural and biological characteristics with HIV.…”

Conserved epitopes on HIV-1, FIV and SIV p24 proteins are recognized by HIV-1 infected subjects

“…FIV resembles both the HIV and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) in genomic structure, morphology, and biophysical characteristics. 15,16 However, FIV is the only lentivirus for which there is a commercial vaccine available in the United States.…”

Feline Immunodeficiency

“…The FIV gag, pol and env genes encode the capsid protein p24; protease, integrase, and reverse transcriptase proteins; the viral glycoprotein (gp120) and the transmembrane protein (gp41), respectively. Both gag and pol are relatively conserved between strains (Olmsted et al, 1989;Kenyon & Lever, 2011;McDonnel et al, 2012).…”

“…Five genetically distinct subtypes or clades of FIV have been described: A, B, C, D and E, with considerable sequence diversity in the env gene. Studies have shown that is possible to use the env nucleotide sequence and the p17-p24 region of the gag gene for subtypes indentification but, once gag gene has a retention rate higher than the env gene, it is considered a good candidate for phylogenetic studies (Sodora et al, 1994;Kurosawa et al, 1999;Hosie et al, 2009;Kenyon & Lever, 2011).…”