AN OBSCURE virus that lurks in almost all of us might play a role in some forms of prostate cancer.
BKV virus infects most people when they are children, but seems to cause problems only in people with weakened immune systems.
The DNA of BKV has been discovered in several types of human cancers including prostate tumours, and mouse studies suggest the virus can trigger cancer. But whether BKV virus or its close relatives, JCV and SV40 (麻豆传媒, 10 July, p 6), really do cause human cancers remains controversial.
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Now Michael Imperiale鈥檚 team at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor has shown that a key BKV protein called TAg, which stimulates cell division, is produced in abnormal prostate growths called atrophic lesions, but not in healthy cells or cancerous ones (Oncogene, DOI: 10.1038/sj.onc.1207920). 鈥淭his study is the first to pinpoint the location of the viral protein,鈥� Imperiale says. He thinks BKV infection might trigger the formation of atrophic lesions, which in some cases could eventually turn cancerous.