MCPyV large T antigen

Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCV or MCPyV) was first described in January 2008 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was the first example of a human viral pathogen discovered using unbiased metagenomic next-generation sequencing with a technique called digital transcriptome subtraction. MCV is one of seven currently known human oncoviruses. It is suspected to cause the majority of cases of Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare but aggressive form of skin cancer. Approximately 80% of Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) tumors have been found to be infected with MCV. Three years later, a team of researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute developed an antibody that detected MCV expression in 97% of MCC tumors. MCV appears to be a common—if not universal—infection of older children and adults. It is found in respiratory secretions suggesting that it may be transmitted by a respiratory route. But it also can be found shedding from healthy skin, and in gastrointestinal tract tissues and elsewhere, and so its precise mode of transmission remains unknown. Most MCV viruses found in MCC tumors, however, have at least two mutations that render the virus nontransmissible: 1) The virus is integrated into the host genome in a monoclonal fashion and 2) The viral T antigen has truncation mutations that leave the T antigen unable to initiate DNA replication needed to propagate the virus.