The Case for BK Polyomavirus as a Cause of Bladder Cancer
NCI ’ s Center for Cancer Research (CCR) Grand Rounds
Dr. Buck ’ s lab studies polyomaviruses. A great majority of healthy adults chronically shed
polyomavirus virions in their urine and from the surface of their skin. Although these lifelong infections generally aren't known to cause symptoms in healthy individuals, under conditions of immune impairment polyomaviruses can cause disease. For example, BK polyomavirus (BKV) causes kidney and bladder damage in organ transplant patients, while its close relative JCV causes a lethal brain disease in patients on immunosuppressive therapies and in individuals suffering from HIV/AIDS. At least one skin-dwelling polyomavirus, Merkel cell polyomavirus, causes a rare but highly lethal form of skin cancer called Merkel cell carcinoma.
Virus discovery efforts led by our lab have uncovered the existence of several human polyomaviruses (HPyV6, 7, and 10) that are commonly shed from the surface of the skin. The organizing focus of work in the lab is the functional biology of viral capsids. By applying basic-science knowledge of capsid biology, our group has pioneered the development of polyomavirus-based gene transfer vectors. These vectors (also known as pseudoviruses) deliver encapsidated reporter plasmids to the cell nucleus via pathways that resemble the infectious entry of authentic virions. In addition to their utility for studying the mechanics of infectious entry, these tools have a variety of other applications. For example, we...
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