Investigation of Human Urogenital Tract Tumors for Papovavirus Etiology: Brief Communication 2

Abstract

Cells cultured from human urogenital cancer and other cancers as well as cells from noncancerous tissues were examined by immunofluorescent staining with antibodies to T-antigens and capsid antigens of papovaviruses BK virus (BKV), JC virus, and simian virus 40(SV40), and to capsid antigens of herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2 and human cytomegalovirus (CMV). Cells from early passage cultures of 123 primary tissues and from 14 continuous lines derived from transitional or renal cell carcinoma were tested. None of the cell preparations was specifically stained with any of the antisera. A serologic comparison of patients with bladder cancer, patients with prostate cancer, and normal control groups of BKV hemagglutination-inhibiting and SV40-neutralizing antibodies showed no differences among the 3 groups. None of the sera in the 3 groups had SV40 or BKV T-antibodies. In tests of supernatants of 35 primary cultures for presence of virus, a single isolation, that of a cytomegalovirus, was made. The study revealed no evidence that infection with papovaviruses of the SV40-polyoma subgroup has any part in the production of bladder and prostate cancer.

Reply: Antibody levels against BK virus and prostate, kidney and bladder cancers in the EPIC-Oxford cohort

“…These results are in accord with those of a previous study, which also reported negative results for bladder cancer (Shah et al, 1978). Lack of BK virus protein does not exclude the possibility that viral DNA is present, although previous studies designed to identify BK virus genomes in normal prostate tissue and in prostate cancer cells have produced inconsistent results and are difficult to interpret (Zambrano et al, 2002;Das et al, 2004).…”

“…Only one published study has reported finding SV40 T antigen present in tumour tissue (but not in adjacent normal tissue), but this was an unusual case in an immunosuppressed transplant recipient (Geetha et al, 2002). Studies of bladder cancer in immunocompetent people have not found SV40 T antigen (Shah et al, 1978). BK virus DNA has been identified in papillary urothelial bladder carcinoma in one study (Monini et al, 1995).…”

Polyomavirus BK and prostate cancer: an unworthy scientific effort?

“…Fifteen out of the twenty-five articles met the criteria by using the molecular-based techniques for the detection of BKV DNA or proteins in tissues. The other ten were excluded for the following reasons: reviews (n=3) [44-46], serological studies (n=3) [47-49], case report (n=1) [50], comment (n=1) [51], cell line study (n=1) [52] or publication in language other than English (n=1) [53]. Out of the fifteen articles included in the analysis, eight were carried out in Europe (Italy [54-56], Switzerland [57], UK [58], Sweden [59], Greece [60], Germany [61]), five in USA [9, 31, 62-64], one in Mexico [65] and one in Japan [66].…”

BK virus and human cancer: Innocent until proven guilty

“…Some earlier studies using immunofluorescent staining for TAg or DNA hybridization analyses on tumor samples or cells derived from tumors did not identify a link between BKV and various urogenital carcinomas [69,70]. More recent reports, however, tend to point to the participation of BKV in the pathogenesis of these tumors, possibly due to improvements in the detection methods.…”