Abstract
Sequences of the novel gammaretrovirus, xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) have been described in human prostate cancer tissue, although the amounts of DNA are low. Furthermore, XMRV sequences and polytropic (p) murine leukemia viruses (MLVs) have been reported in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). In assessing the prevalence of XMRV in prostate cancer tissue samples we discovered that eluates from naïve DNA purification columns, when subjected to PCR with primers designed to detect genomic mouse DNA contamination, occasionally gave rise to amplification products. Further PCR analysis, using primers to detect XMRV, revealed sequences derived from XMRV and pMLVs from mouse and human DNA and DNA of unspecified origin. Thus, DNA purification columns can present problems when used to detect minute amounts of DNA targets by highly sensitive amplification techniques.
Highlights
Murine endogenous retroviruses are categorised on the basis of their receptor usage and tropism and include xenotropic (x) murine leukemia viruses (MLVs) and polytropic (p) MLVs
Like xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV), pMLVs sequences have been found in blood samples from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients [4]
Despite its genetic similarity to xMLVs [1], XMRV has no reservoir in mice [17], but several copies of the virus are present in the human prostate cancer cell line, 22Rv1, which releases infectious virus particles [18]
Summary
Murine endogenous retroviruses are categorised on the basis of their receptor usage and tropism and include xenotropic (x) murine leukemia viruses (MLVs) and polytropic (p) MLVs. Detection of XMRV and other MLV-related viruses, generally rely on PCR amplification of integrated proviral DNA sequences. This murine contamination was detected by PCR using primers IAP forward and IAP reverse (Table 1), designed to amplify IAP sequences.
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