Evidence of merkel cell carcinoma polyomavirus in prostate cancer tissue using nested PCR assay

Prostate cancer, the most common cancer among men in United Kingdom, is considered to be a multifactorial disease. The role of infectious agents, particularly viruses, in prostate cancer development is a controversial issue. Polyomaviruses are world distributed DNA viruses which are suspected to induce malignancies in human. They have been identified in several types of human cancers such as prostate carcinomas. This study was performed to investigate presence of Merkel cell carcinoma polyomavirus (MCV) and Karolinska Institute polyomavirus (KIV) in prostate cancer tissues. Nested PCR was used in order to detect MCV and KIV conserved DNA sequences in total 23 purified genomic DNA samples from human prostate cancer tissues. The presence of MCV DNA was shown in 26% (6 out of total 23) of our samples while KIV DNA was undetectable in our nested PCR assay. These findings suggest MCV infection can occur in prostate tissue. However, further in-depth investigations of MCV gene expression and protein localization in prostate cancer cells are required to inspect probable association of this virus with prostate cancer development. In addition, larger scale studies shall be performed in order to investigate association of KIV and prostate cancer in more depth.

Keywords:

Polyomavirus , PCR , Prostate , Cancer , , MCVKIV ,