Rauscher-leukemia-virus-related sequences in human DNA: presence in some tissues of some patients with hemotopoietic neoplasias and absence in DNA from other tissues.

A [3H[cDNA probe synthesized from the RNA genome of Rauscher murine leukemia virus (MuLVR) and purified by hybridization to MuLVR70S RNA was hybridized to DNA from human normal and hemotopoietic neoplasia tissues. This cDNA hybridized completely to its homologous 70S RNA and was free of self-complementary sequences. Sequences complementary to MuLVR cDNA were found in DNA from tissues of some patients with leukemia (2 of 8), Hodgkin's disease (3 of 10), and one patient with multiple myeloma. DNA from spleen and kidney of a patient with nonneoplastic disease did not contain detectable MuLVR-related sequences. These virus-related sequences in the DNA from these neoplastic tissues were related but not identical to MuLVR sequences because differences of approximately 6 degrees in the midpoints of thermal elution profiles were found between the heterologous and homologous duplexes. These nucleotide sequences are not the same as the proviral sequences of baboon type-C virus previously found from some other patients with leukemia [Reitz et al. (1976) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 73,2113-2117; Wong-Staal et al. (1976) Nature 262, 190-195], because there is no sequence homology between nucleic acids from MuLVR and baboon virus. The absence of these nucleic acid sequences in many tissues of patients with neoplasia and from the few tissues examined from people with nonneoplastic disease suggests that they are not endogenous elements but are acquired after fertilization. Taken together with the previous detection of baboon and woolly monkey type-C viral related components in some human tumors, the results suggest acquisition of at least three types of type-C viral sequences in the human population.