1. ¹State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology, Department of Pathology, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710032, China
2. ²Department of Histopathology, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, UK
3. ³Department of International Health and Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA

Correspondence: Dr GS Huang, E-mail: huanggs@fmmu.edu.cn

Received 27 July 2007; Revised 9 November 2007; Accepted 20 December 2007; Published online 22 January 2008.

Abstract

To evaluate whether parvovirus B19, a common human pathogen, was also involved in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), 112 paraffin-embedded thyroid specimens of benign nodules, papillary, medullary and follicular carcinomas, and normal controls were examined for B19 DNA and capsid protein by nested PCR, in situ hybridisation (ISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC). The expression of the nuclear factor-B (NF-B) was investigated by IHC. The results showed B19 DNA commonly exists in human thyroid tissues; however, there were significant differences between PTC group and normal controls, and between PTC and nonneoplastic adjacent tissues (P<0.001). The presence of viral DNA in PTC neoplastic epithelium was confirmed by laser-capture microdissection and sequencing of nested PCR products. B19 capsid protein in PTC group was significantly higher than that of all the control groups and nonneoplastic adjacent tissues (P0.001). Compared with control groups, the activation of NF-B in PTC group was significantly increased (P0.02), except for medullary carcinomas, and the activation of NF-B was correlated with the viral protein presence (P=0.002). Moreover, NF-B was colocalised with B19 DNA in the neoplastic epithelium of PTC by double staining of IHC and ISH. These results indicate for the first time a possible role of B19 in pathogenesis of PTC.