Detection of a novel oncogenic virus in tumors of the respiratory tract

肺癌是癌症相关死亡的主要原因。虽然吸烟是肺癌的主要危险因素，但最近从不吸烟的人患肺癌的人数有所增加。吸烟以外的其他因素，如致癌病毒，可能与肺癌的发生有关。在这项研究中，我们检测了非小细胞肺癌(NSCLC)中Merkel细胞多瘤病毒(MCPyV)的存在，并检测了一些NSCLC患者的病毒基因组。我们发现存在整合到宿主细胞中的MCPyV基因组和一个截短的大T基因，其中保留了视网膜母细胞瘤肿瘤抑制蛋白结合域。尽管MCPyV的病毒检出率很低，但MCPyV感染的分子特征支持MCPyV在多步癌变过程中可能部分参与了部分患者的NSCLC的发病。

Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality. Although smoking is the major risk factor for the development of lung cancer, the number of lung cancers occurring in never smokers has increased in recent times. Factors other than smoking such as oncogenic virus may be associated with the development of lung cancer.In this study, we tested non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) for the presence of Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) and detected the viral genome in some patients with NSCLC. We showed the presence of integrated MCPyV genome into host cells and a truncated large T gene with a preserved retinoblastoma tumor-suppressor protein-binding domain. Although the viral detection rate was low, the molecular signatures of MCPyV infection support the possibility that during the multistep carcinomagenesis process MCPyV may partly participate in the pathogenesis of NSCLC in a subset of patients.