A Comprehensive Study of Cutaneous Fibropapillomatosis in Free-Ranging Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus) and Red Deer (Cervus elaphus): from Clinical Manifestations to Whole-Genome Sequencing of Papillomaviruses

Papillomaviruses (PVs) are an extremely large group of viruses that cause skin and mucosa infections in humans and various animals. In roe deer and red deer, most PVs belong to the Deltapapillomavirus genus and cause neoplastic changes that are generally described as fibropapillomas. Despite the wide distribution of roe and red deer throughout Europe and beyond, the data in the scientific literature regarding the widespread distribution of PVs and the genetic variability of PV genomes in these species are rather scarce. This study describes cutaneous fibropapillomatosis cases in roe and red deer with clinical manifestations that are typical of infections with PVs. In all cases, the presence of PV DNA was confirmed using PCR, followed by Sanger sequencing of the partial L1 gene. The complete PV genomes were determined in all the investigated samples using next-generation sequencing technology, revealing infections of roe deer with the CcaPV1-type and red deer with the CePV1v-type variant. A comparison of the complete CcaPV1-type and CePV1v-type variant genome sequences reported here with already available complete genome sequences in GenBank revealed their great genetic stability across time and space.

Transforming properties of ovine papillomaviruses E6 and E7 oncogenes

An increasing number of studies suggest that cutaneous papillomaviruses (PVs) might be involved in skin carcinogenesis. However, only a few animal PVs have been investigated regard to their transformation properties. Here, we investigate and compare the oncogenic potential of 2 ovine Delta and Dyokappa PVs, isolated from ovine skin lesions, in vitro and ex vivo. We demonstrate that both OaPV4 (Delta) and OaPV3 (Dyokappa) E6 and E7 immortalize primary sheep keratinocytes and efficiently deregulate pRb pathway, although they seem unable to alter p53 activity. Moreover, OaPV3 and OaPV4-E6E7 expressing cells show different shape, doubling time, and clonogenic activities, providing evidence for a stronger transforming potential of OaPV3 respect to OaPV4. Also, similarly to high-risk mucosal and cutaneous PVs, the OaPV3-E7 protein, constantly expressed in sheep squamous cell carcinomas, binds pRb with higher affinity compared to the E7 encoded by OaPV4, a virus associated to fibropapilloma. Finally, we found that OaPV3 and OaPV4-E6E7 determine upregulation of the pro-proliferative proteins cyclin A and cdk1 in both human and ovine primary keratinocytes. Collectively, results provide evidence for implication of ovine PVs in cutaneous proliferative lesions and skin cancer progression, and indicate sheep as a possible animal model for the study of cutaneous lesions and malignancies.

Prevalence of BPV genotypes in a German cowshed determined by a novel multiplex BPV genotyping assay

Bovine papillomaviruses (BPV) induce benign tumours of the cutaneous or mucosal epithelia in cattle, but are also involved in the development of cancer of the urinary bladder and of the upper gastrointestinal tract. Current BPV genotyping assays employ techniques developed originally for the detection of human papillomaviruses. These methods rely on consensus PCR amplification and subsequent sequencing and are cumbersome and limited in their analytic sensitivity to detect BPV, especially in multiple infections. In this study, a novel multiplex BPV genotyping assay is described to detect sensitively and specifically BPV-1 to -10 as well as BaPV-11. The assay is based on a multiplex PCR using novel broad-spectrum bovine papillomavirus (BSBP) primers followed by multiplex bovine genotyping (MBG) by Luminex xMAP technology. The detection limit of the assay was shown to be between 10 and 100 BPV genomes. In a first application, BPV was detected in 100% of wart preparations with BPV-8 being most prevalent, followed by types 6, 1 and 10. The majority of warts were positive for at least four BPV types. In conclusion, BSBP-PCR/MBG is a powerful high-throughput method suitable for the study of the natural history of BPV and could be useful to veterinarians for the monitoring of the efficacy of future BPV vaccines.