Development and Validation of a New Lab Test for Lymphoma-Associated Herpesvirus in Elephant Seals
- Cancer
Abstract
Recently, a novel gammaherpesvirus, miroungine gammaherpesvirus 3 (MirGHV3), was described in two juvenile elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. We developed and validated a quantitative (q)PCR for rapid detection of MirGHV3 and investigated its potential association with lymphoma. We developed a duplex probe-hybridization qPCR with MirGHV3 DNA polymerase (pol) as the target gene. Each primer-probe combination was cross-validated against the others. Interference was not seen when they were run in the same well as a duplex assay. Twenty-three samples from seven northern elephant seals were tested using the duplex assay. Viral DNA was detected by the assay in 9 of 9 (100%) tissues affected by lymphoma and in 6 of 14 (43%) samples from tissues unaffected by lymphoma. There was a strong correlation between viral copies detected with each of the assays (P=0.0002). Viral load was significantly higher in tissues affected by lymphoma than in those unaffected (P<0.0001). Excluding the virus-negative samples, viral load was still significantly higher in tissues affected by lymphoma than in those unaffected (P=0.0004). This is consistent with a potential role of MirGHV3 in oncogenesis in northern elephant seals, although more studies are needed to determine this definitively. The qPCR developed has utility for further investigations of MirGHV3.
Horgan, M., Martinez, M.E., Archer, L.L., Duignan, P.J. and Wellehan, J.F., 2023. Development and validation of a novel duplex probe-hybridization quantitative PCR for lymphoma-associated miroungine gammaherpesvirus 3 in northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris). Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 59(1), pp. 000-000.
Pádraig Duignan
Maggie Martinez
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{"image":"\/People\/Portrait\/cropped-images\/Padraig Duignan-0-56-635-496-1601760621.jpg","alt":"Padraig Duignan","title":"P\u00e1draig Duignan","text":"Director of Pathology","link_url":"https:\/\/www.marinemammalcenter.org\/person\/padraig-duignan","link_text":"Read Bio"}
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