title: Prevalence of human gammaretrovirus XMRV in sporadic prostate cancer.
abstract: 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%).
authors.affiliation: Institute for Medical Microbiology and Virology, University Medical Center Eppendorf, Martinistrasse 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany. nfischer@uke.de
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.forename: Olaf
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Hellwinkel
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schulz
authors.forename: Felix K H
authors.initials: FK
authors.lastname: Chun
authors.forename: Hartwig
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Huland
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aepfelbacher
authors.forename: Thorsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schlomm
mesh_terms: 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*
chemical_list: D004722:Endoribonucleases; C031956:2-5A-dependent ribonuclease