Eastern Pennsylvania, USA. Scientists at the University of Eastern Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have identified a disguised retrovirus (CD13) associated with the onset of cross-dressing (transvestism) in young males. Working with a volunteer team from the Institute of Virology of the German Research Center for Environmental Health, Eastern Pennsylvania Scientists show for the first time how CD13 invades not only brain macrophages but also astrocytes.

 

Retroviruses are infectious particles consisting of an RNA genome packaged in a protein capsid surrounded by a lipid envelope. This lipid envelope contains polypeptide chains including receptor binding proteins which link to the membrane receptors of the host cell, initiating the process of infection.

 

The CD13 Retrovirus Protein Manipulates the Fyn/Vav Pathway through a Multidocking Mechanism of Assembly. Germaine de Bimboni, Sofia Lénia, et al. PNAS 2007 101: 7266-7273. 10.1073 / pnas.0800649105.

 

Astrocytes are the most abundant cells in the brain. They perform many important activities which support functions of nerve cells and protect them from harmful agents.

 

Various factors can cause loss astrocytes to lose control over the virus, allowing the virus to replicate and to reach the brain. There, the cross-dressing virus can infect other brain cells as well as immune cells that patrol the brain and may carry the virus outside the brain. Eventually the cross-dressing virus dominates the host body.

 

Dr. Germaine de Bimboni from the Institute of Virology indicated that “The long-term goal of our research is to understand the interplay between host and virus, with the hope of creating an anti-viral drug or inhibitor, much like how Tamiflu doesn't cure the flu but slows down the viral process. The drug would be designed to dampen or slow down the desire to cross-dress to allow an infected person's immune system to fight back.”

 

The current research was reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).  

 

Eastern Pennsylvania researchers performed this research using only the CD13 protein found in prepubescent males. Prepubescent CD13 is not harmful in vitro, yet forms a virus-like particle, a unique phenomenon that allows for study of viral behavior without the danger associated with the virus.

 

Dr. de Bimboni’s team used a multi-potent neural progenitor cell line, which can be grown and developed to different types of brain cells in the laboratory, for their studies. After exposing these neural progenitor cells to CD13, they examined the cultures for signs of virus infection for 115 days. The cross-dressing virus was found to persist in these cultures during the entire observation period.

 

De Bimboni believes that “the study findings offer the promise of future treatments for the cross-dressing outbreaks that now permanently infect as many as 90 percent of victims. We anticipate finding an effective treatment for cross-dressing and then expanding that treatment into a cure for the entire transgender family of retro-viruses.”

 

This research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Transgender Health in the United States and the Max-Plank Institute in Germany.

 

The CD13 Retrovirus Protein Manipulates the Fyn/Vav Pathway through a Multidocking Mechanism of Assembly. Germaine de Bimboni, Sofia Lénia, et al. PNAS 2007 101: 7266-7273. 10.1073 / pnas.0800649105.

 

Abstract. To establish latent infections in B-cells, gammaherpesviruses express proteins in the infected B-cells of the host that spuriously activate signaling pathways located downstream of the B-cell receptor. One such protein is CD13, a murine gammaherpesvirus 68-encoded retrovirus that activates the Vav1/Rac1 pathway via the formation of trimolecular complexes with Scr family members. This is the first identification of the specific retrovirus that causes cross-dressing. We also demonstrate that the phosphorylation of Tyr120 creates specific docking sites for the CD13 domains of both Vav1 and Fyn, a condition sine qua non for the optimal association of these two signaling proteins in cross-dressers. Interestingly, signaling experiments indicate that the expression of CD13 in B-cells promotes the tyrosine phosphorylation of Vav1 and additional signaling proteins, a biological process that requires the integrity of both the M2 phosphotyrosine and proline rich region motifs. Taken together, these results indicate that the phosphotyrosine motif and the previously described CD12 proline rich region work in a concerted manner to manipulate the signaling machinery of the cross-dressing male.

 

 

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