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

肺癌是癌症相关死亡率的主要原因。虽然吸烟是肺癌发展的主要危险因素，但近年来，从不吸烟者患肺癌的人数有所增加。吸烟以外的因素如致癌病毒可能与肺癌的发生有关，本研究检测了非小细胞肺癌（NSCLC）中默克尔细胞多瘤病毒（MCPyV）的存在，并对部分NSCLC患者进行了MCPyV基因组检测。我们发现存在整合的MCPyV基因组进入宿主细胞和一个截短的大T基因与保留的视网膜母细胞瘤肿瘤抑制蛋白结合结构域。尽管病毒检出率较低，但MCPyV感染的分子特征支持在多步骤致癌过程中MCPyV可能部分参与一部分患者NSCLC发病机制的可能性。

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.