Absence of simian virus 40 (SV40) DNA in lymphoma samples from Tasmania, Australia.
OBJECTIVE
It has been postulated that the recent world-wide increase in the incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) may have been caused by human infection with simian virus 40 (SV40) (a lymphotropic monkey virus that was introduced to man from contaminated poliovirus vaccines between 1955 and 1963); therefore, we set out to determine the incidence of SV40 DNA positivity in lymphoma samples from patients in Tasmania, Australia.


METHODS
One hundred lymph node samples, 50 from patients with lymphomas and 50 from controls, were tested using PCR amplification of three SV40-specific primer pairs followed by dot-blot hybridisation.


RESULTS
All of the samples tested contained amplifiable DNA, but none contained amplifiable SV40 sequences with any of the primer sets used.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results demonstrate absence of SV40 in the lymphoid tissues of our study population in Tasmania, Australia. SV40 does not explain the increasing incidence of NHL in our population.
Sui
Lee-Fan
LF
Royal Hobart Hospital Department of Haematology/Oncology, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
Williamson
Jan
J
Lowenthal
Ray M
RM
Parker
Andrew J C
AJ
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D027601:Polyomavirus Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D013539:Simian virus 40 / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D014412:Tumor Virus Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology
D004279:DNA, Viral