Role of viruses in the induction of skin tumours and tumourlike proliferations of fish

Green turtle fibropapillomatosis (GTFP) is a growing threat to the survival of green turtle (Chelonia mydas) populations worldwide. Recent transmission studies point to an infectious etiology. Several field studies suggest that high GTFP prevalence is associated with marine habitats that have been impacted by agricultural, industrial, or urban development. Environmental contaminants could be involved in GTFP through several plausible mechanisms including cocarcinogenesis and contaminant-induced immune suppression. However, an association of contaminants with GTFP has not been established. A broader perspective is needed when studying infectious diseases such as GTFP in complex ecosystems. Alternative explanations for high GTFP prevalence in some near-shore habitats include the following: a) these habitats provide an optimum physical environment for survival and transmission of the infectious agent; b) these habitats attract a high density of susceptible turtles or harbor a higher density of potential vectors, facilitating transmission of the pathogen in a density-dependent fashion; and c) these habitats may contain other stressors that render turtles more susceptible to GTFP. Application of scientifically rigorous criteria in the epizootiology of GTFP in free-ranging populations remains a formidable challenge. -Environ Health Perspect 1 03(Suppl 4): 27-30 (1995)

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“…Similar epithelial and fibro-epithelial tumors in other vertebrate species have also been shown to have viral etiologies (4,9).…”

Section: Etiology and Prevalence Of Gtfpmentioning

confidence: 99%

Green turtle fibropapillomatosis: challenges to assessing the role of environmental cofactors.

Herbst

Klein

1995

Environ Health Perspect

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“…number of other tumor types in a wide variety of fishes are suspected of being caused by viruses (Bowser & Casey 1993, Anders & Yoshimizu 1994. However, although peripheral nerve sheath tumors such as neurofibromas, schwannomas and neurofibrosarcomas are relatively common in fishes (Harshbarger et al 1981), none have been shown to be transmissible or to have a viral etiology.…”

Section: Viral Carcinogenesis Has Been Documented In Fishesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Epidermal papillomas in masu salmon and in carp have been shown to be caused by herpesviruses (Anders & Yoshimizu 1994). In addition, a …”

Section: Viral Carcinogenesis Has Been Documented In Fishesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Retroviruses have been shown to be the etiologic agents for lymphosarcomas in pike and other esocids, dermal sarcoma in walleye and plasmacytoid leukemia in coho salmon (Papas et al 1976, Martineau et al 1991, Eaton & Kent 1992. Epidermal papillomas In masu salmon and in carp have been shown to be caused by herpesviruses (Anders & Yoshimizu 1994).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Experimental induction of neurofibromatosis in bicolor damselfish

Mc¹

1995

Dis. Aquat. Org.

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Damselfish ileurofibromatosis (DNF) is a neoplastic disease affecting the peripheral nervous system and chromatophores of bicolor damselfish Pornacentruspartitus on Florida (USA) reefs. This report presents the results of transmission experiments using intramuscular and intraperitoneal injection of a variety of tumor preparations to induce DNF. Neurofibromas developed within 1 yr of injection in 76% of fish injected with homogenates of spontaneously occurring tumors with earliest tumor development occurring at 5 to 6 wk post-injection. Cell-free transmission using 0.2 pm filtrates of DNF tumor homogenates was observed, demonstrating that the agent responsible for DNF is subcellular. Four out of five tumor cell lines established from neurofibromas were found to be tumorigenic when injected, while cells cultured from normal fish had no effect, indicating that the etiologic agent of DNF was present and infectious in tumor cell lines but not in cell lines or primary cultures derived from healthy fish. Serial passages of tumors were conducted through 19 passage generations in vivo. A comparison of the cumulative time to tumor distributions showed that most experiments beyond the third serial passage yielded significantly faster tumor development than was obtained by passaging from spontaneous tumors. Induced tumors exhibited more localized growth patterns and were typically more rapidly g]-owing and more rapidly lethal than spontaneous tumors. In contrast to the differences in growth patterns observed, the histological phenotype of the spontaneous, wild-type DNF lesions was indistinguishable from that of the induced tumors obtained from serial passages as well as in experiments involv~ng cell-free filtrates and cultured tumor cells. These observations indicate that the process of neoplastic transformation is relatively stable in this system, \nth little or no phenotypic drift caused by these manipulations. Naturally occurring, transmissible cancers that arise from cells of the central or peripheral nervous system or from chromatophores have not been previously identified. Thus, DNF is a unique disease and may provide an important model for investigating thls rather unique form of viral oncogenesis.

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“…They have been associated with viral infections [61,118,119], but, for reasons mentioned above, determining whether these apparently benign tumours sometimes progress to malignancy will require studies specifically directed to address this question.…”

Section: Oncogenic Viruses In Reptiles and Fishesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infection and cancer in multicellular organisms

Ewald

2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Evolutionary considerations suggest that oncogenic infections should be pervasive among animal species. Infection-associated cancers are well documented in humans and domestic animals, less commonly reported in undomesticated captive animals, and rarely documented in nature. In this paper, we review the literature associating infectious agents with cancer to evaluate the reasons for this pattern. Non-malignant infectious neoplasms occur pervasively in multicellular life, but oncogenic progression to malignancy is often uncertain. Evidence from humans and domestic animals shows that non-malignant infectious neoplasms can develop into cancer, although generally with low frequency. Malignant neoplasms could be difficult to find in nature because of a low frequency of oncogenic transformation, short survival after malignancy and reduced survival prior to malignancy. Moreover, the evaluation of malignancy can be ambiguous in nature, because criteria for malignancy may be difficult to apply consistently across species. The information available in the literature therefore does not allow for a definitive assessment of the pervasiveness of infectious cancers in nature, but the presence of infectious neoplasias and knowledge about the progression of benign neoplasias to cancer is consistent with a widespread but largely undetected occurrence.

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Role of viruses in the induction of skin tumours and tumourlike proliferations of fish

Cited by 81 publications

References 52 publications

Green turtle fibropapillomatosis: challenges to assessing the role of environmental cofactors.

Green turtle fibropapillomatosis: challenges to assessing the role of environmental cofactors.

Experimental induction of neurofibromatosis in bicolor damselfish

Infection and cancer in multicellular organisms

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