ArticleThoracic cancer2019
Low prevalence of Merkel cell polyomavirus in human epithelial thymic tumors.
Article in Thoracic cancer, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Review of the Potential Implication of Infectious Agents in Myasthenia Gravis.Frontiers in neurology · 2021Pooled it
- Automated In situ Hybridization for Detection of Viral Pathogens Using RNAscope™.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026Article
- Review
- Mechanisms of Viral Oncogenesis: DNA and RNA Viruses in Human Cancer.Journal of inflammation research · 2025Review
- Human polyomaviruses JCPyV and MCPyV in urothelial cell carcinoma: a single institution experience.Frontiers in oncology · 2023Article
- Review
- The case for BK polyomavirus as a cause of bladder cancer.Current opinion in virology · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe etiology of thymic epithelial tumors is unknown. Murine polyomavirus strain PTA has been shown to induce thymomas in mice. Recently, using diverse molecular techniques, we reported the presence of human polyomavirus 7 (HPyV7) in thymic epithelial tumors. In the present study, we investigated the prevalence of Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) in thymic epithelial tumors.
methodsThirty-six thymomas were screened for MCPyV by PCR and subsequently tested by DNA and RNA in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. Twenty-six thymomas were diagnosed with myasthenia gravis (MG).
resultsMCPyV DNA was detected by PCR in 7 (19.4%) of the 36 thymic epithelial tumors and in six of these, the presence of MCPyV was confirmed by fluorescence situ hybridization. Of these, 3 (28.6%) revealed weak MCPyV LT-antigen protein expression. In addition, one of the MCPyV positive thymomas tested positive for MCPyV LT RNA with RNAscope. Of interest, two out of the three thymomas that previously tested positive for MCPyV by immunohistochemistry also tested positive for HPyV7. One of the 11 MG-negative and 2 of the 25 MG-positive were positive for MCPyV.
conclusionsMCPyV DNA and MCPyV protein expression can be detected in human epithelial thymoma; however, to a far lesser extent than HPyV7. Our data strongly indicate that because of its infrequent detection and weak expression, MCPyV is unlikely to play an important role in the etiopathogenesis of human thymomas.
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