Simian Virus 40 DNA Found In US Children

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Simian Virus 40 DNA Found In US Children

WESTPORT, Aug 26 (Reuters Health) - Researchers in the US have uncovered

molecular evidence of simian virus 40 (SV40) infections in tissue samples

from four children born after 1982.

A team led by Dr. Janet S. Butel, of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston,

Texas, screened 337 unselected archival serum samples for SV40 neutralizing

antibody. The team found that 20 samples (5.9%) were positive for the

antibody, according to a report in the September issue of the Journal of

Infectious Diseases.

Dr. Butel's group then used a polymerase chain reaction technique to

identify SV40 DNA in archival tissue samples from the 13 antibody-positive

children for whom tissue samples were available.

The researchers discovered SV40 DNA in tissue samples from four children:

three kidney transplant patients and one patient with Wilms' tumor. A sample

from one of the kidney transplant patients also yielded human polyomavirus

BK virus DNA products. Sequence analysis showed that the SV40 DNA strains

did not arise from laboratory contamination, the team reports.

" I'm convinced that SV40 is able to cause infections in children today, " Dr.

Butel said in an interview with Reuters Health. However, she added, " There's

still a lot we don't know, such as how the virus is transmitted, whether it

controls any disease processes, whether age of transmission matters, and

whether there are regions in the US or in other places in the world where

there is greater infection. "

The investigators note in the journal that patients' viral DNA sequences

" ...showed greater genetic variation than those commonly detected in human

tumors and are reminiscent of the mixtures of regulatory region variants of

SV40 cloned from simian immunodeficiency virus-immunocompromised monkeys. "

Dr. Butel suggested in the interview that this finding raises the question

of whether the virus replicates poorly in healthy human hosts, but

replicates more abundantly when the host becomes compromised.

J Infect Dis 1999;180:884-887.