Evidencing the presence of merkel cell polyomavirus in papillary thyroid cancer

Monir Ghanghareh,Jalal Mosayebi Amroabadi,Shiva Irani,Fatemeh Sakhaee,Farzam Vaziri,Seyed Mohammad Tavangar,Abolfazl Fateh,Seyed Davar Siadat,Morteza Ghazanfari Jajin

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-01055-2

Abstract

Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) infects most people asymptomatically, but recent reports indicate that the virus may be related to carcinogenesis. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of MCPyV on the development of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). Totally, 1057 samples, including 412 fresh biopsy samples (FBS) and 645 paraffin-embedded PTC biopsy samples (PEBS), and 1057 adjacent non-cancerous samples were assessed for the presence of MCPyV DNA and RNA. MCPyV DNA was positive in 215 (20.3%) of samples, including 126 (30.6%) in FBS and 89 (13.8%) in PEBS. In MCPyV-positive samples, the mean MCPyV copy number was higher in the patients with FBS (2.3 × 10–1 ± 0.5 × 10–1 copies/cell) compared to PEBS (0.7 × 10–4 ± 0.1 × 10–4 copies/cell) and adjacent non-PTC normal samples (0.3 × 10–5 ± 0.02 × 10–5 copies/cell), indicating a statistically significant difference (P < 0.001). The LT-Ag RNA expression was higher in FBS compared to PEBS, while VP1 gene transcript was not detected in any samples. Although our findings showed the presence of MCPyV in a subset of PTC Iranian patients, further research is required to confirm these findings.

Highlights

To date, no study has indicated that MCPyV can be associated with Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC)
Among the 1057 enrolled PTC patients, 412 (39.0%) and 645 (61.0%) samples were fresh biopsy samples (FBS) and PEBS, respectively. 1057 PTC and 1057 adjacent non-PTC normal cells were tested by three primer sets (LT1, LT3, and viral protein 1 (VP1)) by conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
Of the 412 FBS, MCPyV DNA was identified in 126 samples with the LT3 region, 110 samples with the large T antigen 1 (LT1) region, and 25 samples with the VP1 region