Prevalence of Jc Polyomavirus Large T Antigen Sequences Among Iranian Patients With Central Nervous System Tumors Publisher Pubmed



Sadeghi F¹ ; Salehivaziri M¹ ; Ghodsi SM² ; Alizadeh A³ ; Bokharaeisalim F⁴ ; Saroukalaei ST⁵ ; Mirbolouk M² ; Monavari SH⁴ ; Keyvani H⁴ Show Affiliations
Source: Archives of Virology Published:2015

Abstract

The human neurotropic JC virus (JCV) is of significant interest due to its experimental neuro- oncogenic potential. In clinical samples from human central nervous system (CNS) tumors, detection of JCV sequences suggests a possible association with CNS neoplasms, but the results are discrepant worldwide. To assess the prevalence of JCV sequences in Iranian patients with primary and metastatic CNS malignancies, a total of 58 fresh CNS tumors were examined by quantitative real-time PCR targeting the JCV large T antigen (LT-Ag) gene, and JCV DNA load was determined as viral copy number per cell. All patients were immunocompetent, and none of them had received immunosuppressive therapy before surgical operation. JC virus LT-Ag sequences were found in a total of 15 (25.9 %) out of the 58 tested samples. In primary CNS tumors, JCV sequences were identified more frequently in meningiomas (50.0 %) and schwannomas (35.7 %). In metastatic CNS tumors, JCV LT-Ag was identified in one case with brain adenocarcinoma originating from lung cancer. No statistically significant association between JCV positivity and various types of CNS malignancies was observed (P = 0.565). The mean JCV LT-Ag copy number in 15 positive cases was 1.8 × 10−4 ± 4.5 × 10−4 copies per cell (range 1.0 × 10−5-1.78 × 10−3 copies per cell). An inverse correlation between white blood cell (WBC) count and JCV copy number was observed, but this correlation was not statistically significant (R = −0.198, P = 0.480). This study provides the first data on the prevalence of JCV in primary and metastatic CNS tumors from Iranian patients. © 2014, Springer-Verlag Wien.