Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 19, 2026

Arbovirus Infections As Screening Tools for the Identification of Viral Immunomodulators and Host Antiviral Factors
Published on: September 13, 2018
Replication of primate foamy viruses in natural and experimental hosts
V Falcone1, M Schweizer, D Neumann-Haefelin
1Department of Virology, Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, University of Freiburg, Hermann-Herder-Strasse 11, 79104 Freiburg, Germany.
Abstract:
Foamy viruses (FVs) are common apathogenic retroviruses readily spread by horizontal transmission in nonhuman primate and some other mammalian host populations. Primate FV infections have been known for half a century, i.e., 15 years before the definition of retroviruses and another 15 years before the detection of primate immune deficiency viruses. The emerging interest in human retroviruses included primate FV, and although the role of human hosts for FV was greatly overestimated temporarily, enthusiastic researchers compiled invaluable data on molecular biology and classic as well as molecular epidemiology of these viruses. It has been shown that lytic FV infection in a wide range of cell cultures is in great contrast to the silent state of the infection in animals. Once transmitted by saliva via biting, FVs reside in all tissues as DNA copies, but their replication is untraceable except in oral submucosal cells, which are thought to supply the virus for transmission. FVs have not definitely been associated with any disease, regardless of viral phylogenetic differences. Various primate and nonprimate species have been used for studies on the natural carrier state and primary infection. Experimental infections have mostly proven to be inefficient in primates as well as lower laboratory animals. However, investigation of the immune response in FV-infected animals has only partly explained the control of FV replication in the animal host. Thus, the biological role of FV remains an enigma to be resolved in the future.
More Related Videos
08:40Production of Pseudotyped Particles to Study Highly Pathogenic Coronaviruses in a Biosafety Level 2 Setting
Published on: March 1, 2019
08:10Production of High-Titer Infectious Influenza Pseudotyped Particles with Envelope Glycoproteins from Highly Pathogenic H5N1 and Avian H7N9 Viruses
Published on: January 15, 2020
Related Concept Videos
Retrovirus Life Cycles
Viral Recombination
Viral Mutations
Retroviruses
Subviral Agents