Rabbit Viral Papillomas and Carcinomas: Model Diseases for Human Papillomavirus Infections and Associated Carcinogenesis
Françoise Breitburd, Mathieu Nonnenmacher, Jérôme Salmon and Gérard Orth
from: Papillomavirus Research: From Natural History To Vaccines and Beyond (Edited by: M. Saveria Campo). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2006)
Abstract
Rabbit papillomaviruses are models of the natural history of diseases caused by oncogenic and non-oncogenic human papillomaviruses (tissue specificity, latency, regression, persistence, malignant progression). The cottontail rabbit papillomavirus (CRPV) induces skin warts in rabbits that may regress or persist depending on the host. Persistent warts may progress to invasive carcinoma. The rabbit oral papillomavirus causes papillomas of the oral and genital mucous membranes that usually regress. The CRPVb subtype, with strikingly divergent regulatory region and E6 and E7 oncogenes, induces warts with distinct immunogenic properties, significant differences in the levels of viral DNA replication and in the risk for malignant progression, allowing analysis of host and viral genetics controlling wart evolution and restriction to virus production. CRPV genetics, molecular biology of CRPV-induced benign and malignant tumors, rabbit immune responses, together with preventive and therapeutic vaccine design, antivirals, and immunomodulators, contribute to human papillomaviruses studies. Linkage of wart evolution to class II genes of the major histocompatibility complex allows the selection of rabbits with more predictable issues of CRPV infection, and the elucidation of the role of CD4+ cells, up-regulation of DQ antigens and down-regulation of class I antigens in the control of wart evolution, depending on rabbit haplotype and virus strain. Rabbit papillomaviruses will contribute to investigations of the genetic susceptibility to skin papillomavirus infection and carcinogenesis read more ...
