Novel human polyomaviruses, Merkel cell polyomavirus and human polyomavirus 9, in Japanese chronic lymphocytic leukemia cases

We found that 9/27 CLL cases (33.3？%) were positive for MCPyV using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis. The viral DNA loads ranged from 0.000017 to 0.0012 copies per cell. All cases were negative for HPyV9. One MCPyV-positive CLL case was evaluated by mutational analysis of the large T (LT) gene, which indicated the presence of wild-type MCPyV without a nucleotide deletion. DNA sequence analysis of the entire small T (ST) gene and the partial LT gene revealed that a Japanese MCPyV isolate, designated CLL-JK, had two nucleotide gaps when compared with the reference sequence of the North American isolate MCC350.This study provides the first evidence that MCPyV is present in a subset of Japanese CLL cases with low viral DNA loads. MCPyV and HPyV9 are unlikely to contribute directly to the development of CLL in the majority of Japanese cases. MCPyV isolated from the Japanese CLL cases may constitute an Asian group and its pathogenicity needs to be clarified in future studies.