ArticleBiology letters2016
Demonstration of immune responses against devil facial tumour disease in wild Tasmanian devils.
Article in Biology letters, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 112 citations in OpenAlex.
- Improved high-throughput MHC typing for non-model species using long-read sequencing.Molecular ecology resources · 2022Pooled it
- Adaptive Immunity in Marsupials.Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology · 2026Review
- Boost or Bust? The Impact of Supplementation on Functional Genetic Diversity and Selective Processes in Tasmanian Devils.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- No Evidence for Distinct Transcriptomic Subgroups of Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD).Evolutionary applications · 2025Article
- Adaptive potential in the face of a transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils.Molecular ecology · 2024Article
- When Do Tumours Develop? Neoplastic Processes Across Different Timescales: Age, Season and Round the Circadian Clock.Evolutionary applications · 2024Review
- De novo evolution of transmissible tumours in hydra.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- In vitro competition between two transmissible cancers and potential implications for their host, the Tasmanian devil.Evolutionary applications · 2024Article
- Complex associations between cancer progression and immune gene expression reveals early influence of transmissible cancer on Tasmanian devils.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Article
- The tumour is in the detail: Local phylogenetic, population and epidemiological dynamics of a transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils.Evolutionary applications · 2023Article
- Bridging clinic and wildlife care with AI-powered pan-species computational pathology.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Transmissible cancer and longitudinal telomere dynamics in Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii).Molecular ecology · 2022Article
- Class II transactivator induces expression of MHC-I and MHC-II in transmissible Tasmanian devil facial tumours.Open biology · 2022Article
- Transmissible cancer influences immune gene expression in an endangered marsupial, the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii).Molecular ecology · 2022Article
- Expression of the Nonclassical MHC Class I, Saha-UD in the Transmissible Cancer Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD).Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Saving the Devils Is in the Details: Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumor Disease Can Be Eliminated with Interventions.Letters in biomathematics · 2022Article
- Disruption of Metapopulation Structure Reduces Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease Spread at the Expense of Abundance and Genetic Diversity.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Spatial variation in gene expression of Tasmanian devil facial tumors despite minimal host transcriptomic response to infection.BMC genomics · 2021Article
- NLRC5 regulates expression of MHC-I and provides a target for anti-tumor immunity in transmissible cancers.Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology · 2021Article
- The immunopeptidomes of two transmissible cancers and their host have a common, dominant peptide motif.Immunology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) is a recently emerged fatal transmissible cancer decimating the wild population of Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii). Biting transmits the cancer cells and the tumour develops in the new host as an allograft. The literature reports that immune escape mechanisms employed by DFTD inevitably result in host death. Here we present the first evidence that DFTD regression can occur and that wild devils can mount an immune response against the disease. Of the 52 devils tested, six had serum antibodies against DFTD cells and, in one case, prominent T lymphocyte infiltration in its tumour. Notably, four of the six devils with serum antibody had histories of DFTD regression. The novel demonstration of an immune response against DFTD in wild Tasmanian devils suggests that a proportion of wild devils can produce a protective immune response against naturally acquired DFTD. This has implications for tumour-host coevolution and vaccine development.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.