No metagenomic evidence of tumorigenic viruses in cancers from a selected cohort of immunosuppressed subjects

Nunzia Passaro¹, Andrea Casagrande², Matteo Chiara³, Bruno Fosso⁴, Caterina Manzari⁴, Anna Maria D'Erchia^{4

5}, Samuele Iesari^{6

7}, Francesco Pisani⁶, Antonio Famulari⁶, Patrizia Tulissi⁸, Stefania Mastrosimone⁹, Maria Cristina Maresca⁹, Giuseppe Mercante^{10

11}, Giuseppe Spriano^{10

11}, Giacomo Corrado^{12

13}, Enrico Vizza¹², Anna Rosa Garbuglia¹⁴, Maria Rosaria Capobianchi¹⁴, Carla Mottini¹, Alessandra Cenci², Marco Tartaglia¹⁵, Alessandro Nanni Costa¹⁶, Graziano Pesole^{4

5}, Marco Crescenzi¹⁷

Affiliations

¹ Italian National Institute of Health, Dept. of Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Rome, 00161, Italy.
² Italian National Institute of Health, Dept. of Oncology and Molecular Medicine, Rome, 00161, Italy.
³ University of Milan, Dept. of Biosciences, Milan, 20122, Italy.
⁴ National Research Council, Institute of Biomembranes, Bioenergetics and Molecular Biotechnologies (IBIOM), Bari, 70126, Italy.
⁵ University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Dept of Biosciences, Biotechnologies and Biopharmaceutics, Bari, 70124, Italy.
⁶ University of L'Aquila, Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, L'Aquila, 67100, Italy.
⁷ Université catholique de Louvain, Pôle de Chirurgie Expérimentale et Transplantation, Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique, Brussels, 1200, Belgium.
⁸ ASUIUD S. Maria della Misericordia, Nephrology Unit, Udine, 33100, Italy.
⁹ ULSS 2, Nephrology, Dialysis, Transplantation Unit, Treviso, 31100, Italy.
¹⁰ Humanitas University, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Milan, 20090, Italy.
¹¹ Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, Pieve Emanuele, MI, 20090, Italy.
¹² Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Dept. of Experimental Clinical Oncology, Gynecologic Oncology Unit, Rome, 00144, Italy.
¹³ Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, Dept. of Women and Children Health, Gynecologic Oncology Unit, Rome, 00168, Italy.
¹⁴ National Institute for Infectious Diseases "L. Spallanzani" IRCCS, Laboratory of Virology, Rome, 00149, Italy.
¹⁵ Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù IRCCS, Genetics and Rare Diseases Research Division, Rome, 00165, Italy.
¹⁶ Italian National Institute of Health, National Transplant Center, Rome, 00162, Italy.
¹⁷ Italian National Institute of Health, Core Facilities, Rome, 00161, Italy. marco.crescenzi@iss.it.

PMID: 31875016
PMCID: PMC6930283
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-56240-1

Multicenter Study

No metagenomic evidence of tumorigenic viruses in cancers from a selected cohort of immunosuppressed subjects

Nunzia Passaro et al. Sci Rep. 2019.

. 2019 Dec 24;9(1):19815.

doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-56240-1.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Italian National Institute of Health, Dept. of Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Rome, 00161, Italy.
² Italian National Institute of Health, Dept. of Oncology and Molecular Medicine, Rome, 00161, Italy.
³ University of Milan, Dept. of Biosciences, Milan, 20122, Italy.
⁴ National Research Council, Institute of Biomembranes, Bioenergetics and Molecular Biotechnologies (IBIOM), Bari, 70126, Italy.
⁵ University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Dept of Biosciences, Biotechnologies and Biopharmaceutics, Bari, 70124, Italy.
⁶ University of L'Aquila, Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, L'Aquila, 67100, Italy.
⁷ Université catholique de Louvain, Pôle de Chirurgie Expérimentale et Transplantation, Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique, Brussels, 1200, Belgium.
⁸ ASUIUD S. Maria della Misericordia, Nephrology Unit, Udine, 33100, Italy.
⁹ ULSS 2, Nephrology, Dialysis, Transplantation Unit, Treviso, 31100, Italy.
¹⁰ Humanitas University, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Milan, 20090, Italy.
¹¹ Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, Pieve Emanuele, MI, 20090, Italy.
¹² Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Dept. of Experimental Clinical Oncology, Gynecologic Oncology Unit, Rome, 00144, Italy.
¹³ Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, Dept. of Women and Children Health, Gynecologic Oncology Unit, Rome, 00168, Italy.
¹⁴ National Institute for Infectious Diseases "L. Spallanzani" IRCCS, Laboratory of Virology, Rome, 00149, Italy.
¹⁵ Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù IRCCS, Genetics and Rare Diseases Research Division, Rome, 00165, Italy.
¹⁶ Italian National Institute of Health, National Transplant Center, Rome, 00162, Italy.
¹⁷ Italian National Institute of Health, Core Facilities, Rome, 00161, Italy. marco.crescenzi@iss.it.

PMID: 31875016
PMCID: PMC6930283
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-56240-1

Abstract

The possible existence of yet undiscovered human tumorigenic viruses is still under scrutiny. The development of large-scale sequencing technologies, coupled with bioinformatics techniques for the characterization of metagenomic sequences, have provided an invaluable tool for the detection of unknown, infectious, tumorigenic agents, as demonstrated by several recent studies. However, discoveries of novel viruses possibly associated with tumorigenesis are scarce at best. Here, we apply a rigorous bioinformatics workflow to investigate in depth tumor metagenomes from a small but carefully selected cohort of immunosuppressed patients. While a variegated bacterial microbiome was associated with each tumor, no evidence of the presence of putative oncoviruses was found. These results are consistent with the major findings of several recent papers and suggest that new human tumorigenic viruses are not common even in immunosuppressed populations.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

**Figure 1**
Schematic of the sequence analysis workflow.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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No metagenomic evidence of tumorigenic viruses in cancers from a selected cohort of immunosuppressed subjects

Affiliations

No metagenomic evidence of tumorigenic viruses in cancers from a selected cohort of immunosuppressed subjects

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Figures

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources