The prostate cancer-associated human retrovirus XMRV lacks direct transforming activity but can induce low rates of transformation in cultured cells.

ABSTRACT: The human retrovirus XMRV (xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus) is associated with prostate cancer, but a causal relationship has not been established. Here, we have used cultured fibroblast and epithelial cell lines to test the hypothesis that XMRV might have direct transforming activity but found only rare transformation events, suggestive of indirect transformation, even when the target cells expressed the human Xpr1 cell entry receptor for XMRV. Characterization of cells from three transformed foci showed that all were infected with and produced XMRV, and one produced a highly active transforming virus, presumably generated by recombination between XMRV and host cell nucleic acids. Given the sequence similarity of XMRV to mink cell focus-forming (MCF) viruses and the enhance

SUBMITTER: Metzger MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2812358 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature