No Evidence of Human Polyomavirus 9, WU and KI DNA in Kidney and Urinary Bladder Tumour Tissue Samples
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Updated: Mar 21, 2026

Measurement of BK-polyomavirus Non-Coding Control Region Driven Transcriptional Activity Via Flow Cytometry
Published on: July 13, 2019
Eszter Csoma1, László Bidiga, Gábor Méhes
1Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary.
Background/Aims:
The oncogenic potential of human polyomaviruses (HPyVs) has been proposed, but so far only Merkel cell carcinoma polyomavirus seems to be associated with a human tumour. The role of BK polyomavirus (BKPyV) in human tumourigenesis remains controversial. BKPyV establishes persistent infection in the urinary tract, and renal and bladder neoplasms have been studied extensively, but conflicting prevalence data are reported. KI, WU and HPyV9 were detected in urine samples suggesting that these viruses may also infect the urinary tract, but their presence in urinary tract tumours has not been studied. The aim of this work was to examine the prevalence of KIPyV, WUPyV, HPyV9 and BKPyV by PCR in renal and bladder neoplasms.
Methods:
A total of 190 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded renal neoplasms, bladder cancer and kidney biopsy samples were analysed for the presence of BKPyV, KIPyV, WUPyV and HPyV9 DNA by real-time and nested PCR.
Results:
Amplifiable DNA was extracted from all the samples, but none of the studied viruses were detected in benign renal neoplasia (0/23), malignant renal tumours (0/89) or bladder cancer (0/76).
Conclusion:
Our study did not find any evidence that BKPyV, KIPyV, WUPyV or HPyV9 are associated with bladder and renal tumours.

