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Abstract
In the past three years, remarkable discoveries have added three new human polyomaviruses
(KI virus (KIV), WU virus (WUV) and Merkel cell virus (MCV)) to a class that previously
had only two disease-causing members (BK virus (BKV) and JC virus (JCV)) identified.
Two monkey polyomaviruses, simian virus (SV)40 and B-cell lymphotropic polyomavirus
(LPV) are also present in humans. KIV and WUV lack the agnoprotein coding sequence
and regulatory micro (mi)RNA clusters of BKV, JCV and SV40. MCV lacks the agnoprotein
sequence but generates miRNAs. KIV, WUV and MCV are all widespread in humans. Although
they have distinctive tissue tropisms, all these viruses are probably acquired in
childhood. Of these viruses, only MCV has thus far been strongly linked to cancer.
Marshalled evidence from diverse sources implicates MCV as an etiological agent of
Merkel cell carcinoma. This review compares the structural features of the new and
previously known polyomaviruses, with the aim of identifying approaches to molecular
pathology.
Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.