Viruses and Cancer

The link between viruses and cancer was one of the pivotal discoveries in cancer research. These days it is
generally agreed that viruses are involved in 10–20% of all cancers. But acceptance of this association took
a long time, probably because viruses were perceived as infectious and transmissible whereas cancers were
not. As long ago as 1908 two Danish scientists, Wilhelm Ellermann and Oluf Bang showed that leukaemia
in chickens was caused by a filterable agent (a virus) which could transmit the disease. And just 3 years
later, Peyton Rous, working at the Rockefeller Institute in NewYork, discovered a virus which caused
sarcoma (cancer of connective tissue) in chickens. Their findings were virtually ignored at the time,
although 50 years later (in 1966) Rous received a Nobel prize. By that time several other animal tumour
viruses had been discovered and the importance of his early work was finally recognized.
Almost anything that can alter the genetic material of a eukaryotic cell has the potential to make a
normal cell cancerous. These cancer-causing alterations to cellular DNA affecting parts of the genome
called oncogenes. Virus capable of inducing tumors in animals are called oncogenic viruses or oncoviruses.
Tumour cells undergo transformation; that is, they acquire properties that are distinct from the
properties of uninfected cells or from infected cells that do not form tumors. After being transformed by
viruses, many tumor cells contain a virus-specific antigen on their cell surface, called tumor-specific
transplantation antigen (TSTA), or an antigen in their nucleus, called the T antigen. Transformed cells tend
to be less round than normal cells, and tend to exhibit certain chromosomal abnormalities, such as unusual
number of chromosomes and fragmented chromosomes.

DNA Oncogenic Viruses:

Oncogenic viruses are found within several families of DNA-containing viruses. These groups include the
Adenoviridae, Herpesviridae, Poxviridae, Papovaviruses, and Hepadnaviridae. Among the papovaviruses,
Papillomaviruses cause uterine (cervical) cancer.
A genus of the Herpesviridae, Lymphocryptovirus, includes the Epstein-Barr virus (EB virus),
which causes infectious mononucleosis and two human cancers, Burkitt’s lymphoma and nasopharyngeal
carcinoma. Burkitt’s lymphoma is a rare cancer of the lymphatic system; it affects mostly children in
certain parts of Africa. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a cancer of the nose and throat, is found world-wide.
Some researchers have also suggested that EB virus is involved in Hodgkin’s disease, a cancer of the
lymphatic system. Another DNA virus that causes cancer is hepatitis B virus (HBV, genus Hepadnavirus).
In one human study, virtually all the people with liver cancer had previous HBV infection.

RNA Oncogenic Viruses:

Among the RNA viruses, only the oncoviruses in the family Retroviridae cause cancer. The humam T-cell
leukemia viruses (HTLV-1 and HTLV-2) are retroviruses that cause adult T-cell leukemia and lymphoma
in humans. Sarcoma viruses of cats, chickens, and rodents, and the mammary tumor viruses of mice, are
also retroviruses. An other retrovirus, feline leukemia virus, causes leukemia in cats and is transmissible
among cats.
The provirus, which is double stranded DNA molecule synthesized from the viral RNA, becomes
integrated into the host cell’s DNA; new genetic material is thereby introduced into the host’s genome, and
this is the key reason retroviruses can contribute to cancer. Some retroviruses contain oncogenes; other
contain promoters that turn on oncogenes or other cancer-causing factors.

Type of Viral Infections in Humans

1. Acute infections: Most viruses that infect humans, such as those that cause routine respiratory
infections (e.g., cold viruses, influenza viruses) and gastrointestinal infections (e.g., Rotaviruses, Norwalk
virus), cause acute infections. Acute infections are of relatively short duration with rapid recovery.
2. Persistent infections: Persistent viral infections are disease processes that occur over a long period and
are generally fatal. Eg. Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) that can follow an acute measles
infection and progressive encephalitis that can follow rubella.

3. Latent viral infection: In a latent viral infection the virus remains in equilibrium with the host for long
periods of time before symptoms again appear, but the actual viruses cannot be detected until reactivation
of the disease occurs. Examples include infections caused by HSV-1 (fever blisters), HSV-2 (genital
herpes), and VZV (chickenpox-shingles).

4. Chronic virus infections: The virus can be demonstrated in the body at all times and the disease may be
present or absent for an extended period of time. Examples include hepatitis B (caused by HBV) and
hepatitis C (caused by HCV).

5. Slow infections: Slow infections are ones in which the infectious agents gradually increase in number
over a very long period of time during which no significant symptoms are seen. Examples include AIDS
(caused by HIV-1 and HIV-2) and certain lentiviruses that cause tumors in animals.

Cancer treatment and prevention

The importance of the identification of an association between viruses and various types of cancer is that it
opens up new possibilities for cancer prevention and treatment. Because virus-associated cancer cells
express viral antigens, they can be recognized as ‘foreign’ by the immune system. So vaccines can be
developed which induce an effective immune response to the virus and can thereby prevent infection and
consequent tumour production. Vaccines for HBV and HPV are at present being tested in clinical trials and
are giving encouraging results. Also, where tumours develop in the setting of immunosuppression, the key
elements of the immune response controlling the virus infection, cytotoxic T cells, can be grown in the
laboratory and given to patients to prevent or treat the tumour. With these various strategies, hopefully it will not
be that long before the worldwide incidence of virus-associated cancers is dramatically reduced.

Prions

A prion is a nonliving, self-replicating infectious agent made of protein. It can reproduce with the
aid of its host's biological machinery, like a virus. "Prion" is short for "proteinaceous infectious
particle."

Prions are responsible for the outbreak of Mad Cow Disease in Britain during the early
00s, which led to the destruction of thousands of livestock, and international fear about the
possibility of the disease spreading from bovines to humans. (The scientific name for Mad Cow
disease is bovine spongiform encephalopathy.) The disease is so named because it causes the
brain of the victim to degenerate into a sponge-like consistency.

The human diseases are Kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Gerstmann-Straussler-

Scheinker syndrome, and fatal familial insomnia.