Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21231, USA.
Int J Cancer. 2010 Jun 15;126(12):2991-6. doi: 10.1002/ijc.24737.
Merkel Cell Virus (MCV) is a newly discovered polyomavirus, recently found in a rare skin cancer, Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). However, MCV has also been detected in some normal tissue samples. We tested and compared the relative quantity of the MCV in a set of diverse human tissue samples with the MCC samples. The levels of MCV in MCCs were over 60 times higher than the highest values in all other tissues. Low quantities of MCV were detected in diverse tissue samples independently of malignant or benign histologic status. Higher levels of the virus were found in the upper aerodigestive tract, digestive system, and saliva compared to the lung and genitourinary system samples. These results confirm that MCV is widespread in the human body and suggest a possible fecal-oral transmission route similar to the Hepatitis A virus. Despite widespread presence of the virus, it appears that only neuroendocrine skin cells are susceptible to transformation by MCV.
Merkel 细胞病毒(MCV)是一种新发现的多瘤病毒,最近在一种罕见的皮肤癌—— Merkel 细胞癌(MCC)中被发现。然而,MCV 也在一些正常组织样本中被检测到。我们检测并比较了一组不同的人类组织样本和 MCC 样本中 MCV 的相对数量。MCC 中的 MCV 水平比所有其他组织中的最高值高出 60 多倍。在恶性或良性组织学状态下,在各种组织样本中均检测到低量的 MCV。与肺和泌尿生殖系统样本相比,在上呼吸道、消化系统和唾液中发现了更高水平的病毒。这些结果证实 MCV 在人体中广泛存在,并提示可能存在类似于甲型肝炎病毒的粪-口传播途径。尽管病毒广泛存在,但似乎只有神经内分泌皮肤细胞容易被 MCV 转化。