Correspondence
Analysis of XMRV integration sites from human prostate cancer tissues suggests PCR contamination rather than genuine human infection
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* Corresponding author: Greg J Towers g.towers@ucl.ac.uk
1 MRC Centre for Medical Molecular Virology, Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London, 46 Cleveland St, London W1T 4JF, UK
2 Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK
Retrovirology 2011, 8:13 doi:10.1186/1742-4690-8-13
Published: 25 February 2011Abstract
XMRV is a gammaretrovirus associated in some studies with human prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome. Central to the hypothesis of XMRV as a human pathogen is the description of integration sites in DNA from prostate tumour tissues. Here we demonstrate that 2 of 14 patient-derived sites are identical to sites cloned in the same laboratory from experimentally infected DU145 cells. Identical integration sites have never previously been described in any retrovirus infection. We propose that the patient-derived sites are the result of PCR contamination. This observation further undermines the notion that XMRV is a genuine human pathogen.