Seroprevalence of bovine leukemia virus (BLV) infection in dairy cattle in Isfahan Province, Iran.

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV), the causative agent of enzootic bovine leukosis (EBL) is an exogenous C-type oncovirus in the Retroviridae family. It causes significant economic losses associated with the costs of control and eradication programs due to carcass condemnation at slaughter and restrictions of export of cattle and semen to importing countries. The main objective of this research was to determine the seroprevalence of BLV infection in cattle herds in central region of Iran (Isfahan province) using a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect serum antibodies against BLV. Samples of blood serum were collected from 403 female dairy cattle (Holstein-Friesian) from 21 livestock farms and 303 animals (81.9%) were BLV seropositive. A significant association was found between age as a potential risk factor and BVL seroprevalence with animals ≥ 4 years (86.6%) having a significantly (χ(2) = 35.6, p < 0.001) higher seroprevalence compared to those < 4 years (54.2%). We found no significant statistical association between seroprevalence and pregnancy, lactation status and farming systems as potential risk factors in this study (p > 0.1). It is concluded that BLV infection is a very common problem in the study area. Hence, control measures should be instituted to combat the disease and further studies are required to investigate the impact of this disease on dairy production in the country.

Induction of Apoptosis in Human Leukemia Cell Line (HL60) by Animal's Venom Derived Peptides (ICD-85).

Our previous studies revealed an inhibitory effect of ICD-85 (Venom derived peptides) on breast cancer cell line MDA-MB231. ICD-85 was also confirmed by in-vivo studies to suppress the breast tumor in mice. However, the exact mechanism of ICD-85 was unknown. Hence, the present study was undertaken to assess the mechanism of ICD-85 effect as an anti-proliferative agent of cancer cells. The effect of ICD-85 on proliferation of HL-60 cancer cells was determined by using the MTT assay. The morphological changes of ICD-85 treated HL-60 cells were observed under transmission electron microscope (TEM). DNA fragmentation analysis was also carried out using gel electrophoresis. ICD-85 induced the marked inhibition of HL60 cell proliferation with an IC50-value of 0.04 µg/mL following 24 h of incubation. ICD-85 treated cells when compared with untreated cells, showed nuclear material condensation, endoplasmic reticulum dilation, mitochondria swelling or degradation, increased cytoplasmic vacuoles, reduction or disappearance in cytoplasmic process and decreased nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio was observed. The characteristic DNA ladder formation of ICD-85-treated cells in agarose gel electrophoresis confirmed the results obtained through the electron microscopy. The results of the present study indicated that ICD-85 inhibited the cancer cell proliferation by inducing cell apoptosis.