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A Transgenic Drosophila melanogaster Model To Study Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Oncoprotein Tax-1-Driven
Margret Shirinian1, Zakaria Kambris2, Lama Hamadeh3
1Department of Experimental Pathology, Immunology, and Microbiology Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
Abstract:
Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1)-induced adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma is an aggressive malignancy. HTLV-2 is genetically related to HTLV-1 but does not cause any malignant disease. HTLV-1 Tax transactivator (Tax-1) contributes to leukemogenesis via NF-κB. We describe transgenic Drosophila models expressing Tax in the compound eye and plasmatocytes. We demonstrate that Tax-1 but not Tax-2 induces ommatidial perturbation and increased plasmatocyte proliferation and that the eye phenotype is dependent on Kenny (IKKγ/NEMO), thus validating this new in vivo model.
