JC virus DNA is present in the mucosa of the human colon and in colorectal cancers
- Luigi Laghi*,
- Ann E. Randolph*,
- D. P. Chauhan*,
- Giancarlo Marra*,
- Eugene O. Major†,
- James V. Neel‡, and
- C. Richard Boland*,§
- *Department of Medicine and Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, 4028 Basic Science Building, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093-0688; †Laboratory of Molecular Medicine and Neuroscience, Building 36, Room 5W21, 36 Convent Drive, The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892; and ‡Department of Human Genetics, The University of Michigan School of Medicine, 4708 Medical Science II, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-0618
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Contributed by James V. Neel
Abstract
JC virus (JCV) is a polyoma virus that commonly infects humans. We have found T antigen DNA sequences of JCV in the mucosa of normal human colons, colorectal cancers, colorectal cancer xenografts raised in nude mice, and in the human colon cancer cell line SW480. A larger number of viral copies is present in cancer cells than in non-neoplastic colon cells, and sequence microheterogeneity occurs within individual colonic mucosal specimens. The improved yield of detection after treatment with topoisomerase I suggests that the viral DNA is negatively supercoiled in the human tissues. These results indicate that JCV DNA can be found in colonic tissues, which raises the possibility that this virus may play a role in the chromosomal instability observed in colorectal carcinogenesis.
Footnotes
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↵ § To whom reprint requests should be addressed. e-mail: crboland{at}ucsd.edu.
- ABBREVIATIONS:
- JVC,
- JC virus;
- SV40,
- simian virus 40;
- EtdBr,
- ethidium bromide;
- TISPA,
- topoisomerase I-sensitive polyomavirus amplification
- Copyright © 1999, The National Academy of Sciences
