Prevalence of human gammaretrovirus XMRV in sporadic prostate cancer.
BACKGROUND
We previously identified a novel exogenous gammaretrovirus (xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related gammaretrovirus (XMRV)) using a pan-viral microarray. XMRV is the first MLV-related virus found in human infection. Forty percent (8/20) of familial prostate cancer patients homozygous for a mutation in RNase L (R462Q) were positive for XMRV, while the virus was rarely (1/66) detected in familial prostate cancer patients heterozygous for R462Q or carrying the wild type allele.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the presence of XMRV in non-familial prostate cancer samples.


METHODS
RNA from prostate tissue was analyzed for XMRV using nested RT-PCR. In all samples, RNase L (R462Q) genotyping was performed using an allele-specific PCR.


RESULTS
XMRV-specific sequences were detected in one of 105 tissue samples from non-familial prostate cancer patients and from one of 70 tissue samples from men without prostate cancer. The two XMRV-positive patients were wild type or heterozygous for the R462Q mutation and thus carried at least one fully functional RNase L allele.


CONCLUSIONS
XMRV was rarely detected in non-familial prostate cancer samples from Northern European patients. The homozygous mutation R462Q (QQ) was significantly underrepresented (<6%) in this cohort when compared to other studies (11-17%).
Fischer
Nicole
N
Institute for Medical Microbiology and Virology, University Medical Center Eppendorf, Martinistrasse 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany. nfischer@uke.de
Hellwinkel
Olaf
O
Schulz
Claudia
C
Chun
Felix K H
FK
Huland
Hartwig
H
Aepfelbacher
Martin
M
Schlomm
Thorsten
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004722:Endoribonucleases / Q000235:genetics; D017988:Gammaretrovirus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D015995:Prevalence; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000821:virology*; D012192:Retroviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D014412:Tumor Virus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*
D004722:Endoribonucleases; C031956:2-5A-dependent ribonuclease