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Detection of JC virus DNA sequences in colorectal cancers in Japan

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Abstract

JC virus (JCV), a ubiquitous polyoma virus that commonly infects humans, was first identified as the etiologic agent for the fetal demyelinating disease, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. Recently, a number of reports have documented detection of JCV in samples derived from several types of neural as well as non-neural human tumors. It has been suggested that oncogenicity of JCV depends on a T antigen having a strict structural homology to the T antigen of simian virus 40. To clarify whether JCV might have a potential role with regard to colorectal cancers, we investigated the presence of its genome in a series of cases along with colorectal adenomas and normal colonic mucosa, targeting T antigen, VP and agnoprotein by nested polymerase chain reaction and Southern blotting and T antigen by immunohistochemistry. While VP and agnoprotein were not found in any of the samples examined, T antigen was detected in 6 of 23 colorectal cancers (26.1%) and 1 of 21 adenomas (4.8%), but none of 20 samples of normal colonic mucosa. No clear and diffuse staining with anti-T-antigen antibodies (1:100) could be detected, and there was no correlation with CD20-positive cells, which might have indicated JCV latent infection of B lymphocytes. Presence of T antigen did not influence clinicopathological variables, including survival. In one colonic cancer case positive for T antigen together with lymph node metastasis, DNA extracted from cancer cells in the lymph node revealed no detection of T antigen. Our results are in the intermediate position between the high T antigen rate (81%) in one report and the lack of it (0%) in another focused on colon cancers. It was concluded that T antigen might be integrated in cancer cells in approximately one fourth of Japanese colon cancer cases without clear and diffuse expression of the protein, suggesting a possible role in oncogenesis which might involve a hit-and-run mechanism.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Tokimasa Kumada, Hideki Hatta, Kanako Yasuyoshi, Nobuhide Hata and Hiroyo Ueda for expert technical support and Yukari Inoue for her secretarial assistance. This investigation was financially supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Basic Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. First Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, 2630 Sugitani, Toyama, 930-0152, Japan

    Ryouta Hori, Yoshihiro Murai, Kouichi Tsuneyama, Hekmat Osman Abdel-Aziz, Kazuhiro Nomoto, Hiroyuki Takahashi, Chun-mei Cheng, Tomohiko Kuchina & Yasuo Takano

  2. School of Life Science, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, 4000, Australia

    Brian V. Harman

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  1. Ryouta Hori
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  2. Yoshihiro Murai
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  10. Yasuo Takano
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Correspondence to Yasuo Takano.

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Hori, R., Murai, Y., Tsuneyama, K. et al. Detection of JC virus DNA sequences in colorectal cancers in Japan. Virchows Arch 447, 723–730 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-005-0014-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-005-0014-3

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