Recently, Prof. ZiqiangCheng's team from College of Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Agricultural University discovered that chickendoublecortin-like kinase 1 (DCLK1) interacts with SU protein of avian leukosis virus subgroup J (ALV-J)to induce tumor metastasis. The resultswere published in the Journal of Virology, an international authoritative virology journal.

ALV-J promotes EMT

In China, ALV-J is one of the most significant infectious diseases affecting the poultry industry. At present, there is no commercial vaccine or drug applied in clinical practice, and it is mainly controlled by elimination program in large breeding enterprises,but it is time-consuming and costly. In recent years, researchers have worked to uncover the mechanism of ALV-J infection in order to establish efficient antiviral strategies and prevention and control the disease.

Previous studies have shown that ALV-J mainly induces myelocytomas, and causes tumor cells to metastasize to multiple organs in diseased chickens, which is the main cause of death in cases. However, the mechanism underlying the metastasis of ALV-J-induced tumors is not clear.

DCLK1 promotes cell proliferation by accelerating G1/S cell cycle progression

In the study, ZiqiangCheng's team detected a tumor stem cell marker DCLK1 in ALV-J-infected cells. DCLK1 interacts with ALV-Jsurface protein (SU), and accelerates cell proliferation, leading to increased viral replication, and ultimately activating epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which paves the way for tumor metastasis.

ALV-J belongs to the simplest retrovirus, whose genetic information is stored in ribonucleic acid (RNA). The discovery of the mechanism of ALV-J-induced tumor metastasis is significant for the elucidation of the mechanism of retrovirus-induced tumor metastasis and the development of target drugs against tumor metastasis.

Professor Ziqiang Cheng of the college of Veterinary Medicine is the corresponding author of this paper, doctoral student Jing Zhouis the first author of this paper, associate professors Guihua Wang and Defang Zhou, doctoral students Xusheng Du, Jingwen Xue, and master student Jianhao Yang participated in this research work. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Key International (regional) Cooperative Research Project and the General Project of NSFC.

Link to the paper:  https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/JVI.01657-21

Email of Prof. Ziqiang Cheng: czqsd@126.com