VACCINE

“... determining the origin of the SV40 sequences detected in human tumors might be difficult.”
Virology • January 2008
Recovery of strains of the polyomavirus SV40 from rhesus monkey kidney cells
dating from the 1950s to the early 1960s
Keith Pedena, Li Shenga, Romelda Omeira, Maureen Yacobuccia,
Michael Klutchb, †, Majid Laassric, Konstantin Chumakovc, Achintya Palb, 1,
Haruhiko Murataa, b, Andrew M. Lewis Jr.b
a. Laboratory of Retrovirus Research, Division of Viral Products, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research
Food and Drug Administration, 29 Lincoln Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
b. Laboratory of DNA Viruses, Division of Viral Products, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research
Food and Drug Administration, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
c. Laboratory of Methods Development, Division of Viral Products, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research
Food and Drug Administration, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
Abstract
From stocks of adenovirus and poliovirus prepared in primary rhesus macaque kidney cells and dating from 1956
to 1961, the time when SV40 contaminated some poliovirus vaccine lots, we have recovered ten isolates of SV40.
Of these ten isolates, based on the C-terminal region of T antigen, five novel strains of SV40 have been identified.
Additionally, three pairs of isolates were found to be the same strain: one pair was strain 777, one pair was strain
776 archetype, and the third pair represented a novel strain. All strains had identical protein sequences for VP2
and VP3. There were two variants of agnoprotein and the small t antigen and three variants of VP1. These results,
and those of others, suggest that a limited number of SV40 strains might exist in rhesus macaques in the United
States, and thus determining the origin of the SV40 sequences detected in human tumors might be difficult.
Full Report: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0042682207004321