 | Author(s) | | | Mackenzie J, Wilson KS, Perry J, Gallagher A, jarett RF |
| Publication | | | J National Cancer Institute |
| Reference | | | Vol: 95(13) 1001 - 1003 |
| Publication Date | | | 2003 |
|  | Last year two reports suggesting that SV40 genomic sequences could be detected in ~40% of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas appeared in the Lancet. SV40 is a virus of primates and is not known to naturally infect humans, however, early batches of polio vaccine were contaminated with SV40 and the virus may therefore have entered the human population through this route. In order to determine whether SV40 might be involved in causing lymphoma we screened a large number of lymphoma samples for the presence of this virus. Our results were completely negative. Although the reason for the difference between our results and those of the Lancet studies is not clear, the results suggest that it is highly unlikely that SV40 is involved in the pathogenesis of the common human lymphomas.
Abstract
Recent studies have reported the presence of simian virus 40 (SV40) DNA sequences in approximately 40% of tumor samples from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) patients from the United States. We examined a series of 259 tumor and blood samples, including 152 NHL samples, from patients in the U.K. with lymphadenopathy and lymphoid leukemia for the presence of SV40 DNA using a highly sensitive quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay and a consensus PCR assay capable of detecting the polyomaviruses SV40, BK, and JC. SV40 DNA sequences were not detected in any sample using either assay. Because the incidence of NHL is similar in the U.K. and the United States, this finding suggests that SV40 is unlikely to have an etiologic role in NHL.
Comment by: Professor Ruth Jarrett, University of Glasgow, 2003.
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