http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0029050
Detection of Murine Leukemia Virus or Mouse DNA in Commercial RT-PCR
Reagents and Human DNAs
HaoQiang Zheng, Hongwei Jia, Anupama Shankar, Walid Heneine, William M. Switzer*
Laboratory Branch, Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, National Center
for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of
America
Abstract
The xenotropic murine leukemia virus (MLV)-related viruses (XMRV) have
been reported in persons with prostate cancer, chronic fatigue
syndrome, and less frequently in blood donors. Polytropic MLVs have
also been described in persons with CFS and blood donors. However,
many studies have failed to confirm these findings, raising the
possibility of contamination as a source of the positive results. One
PCR reagent, Platinum Taq polymerase (pol) has been reported to
contain mouse DNA that produces false-positive MLV PCR results. We
report here the finding of a large number of PCR reagents that have
low levels of MLV sequences. We found that recombinant
reverse-transcriptase (RT) enzymes from six companies derived from
either MLV or avian myeloblastosis virus contained MLV pol DNA
sequences but not gag or mouse DNA sequences. Sequence and
phylogenetic analysis showed high relatedness to Moloney MLV,
suggesting residual contamination with an RT-containing plasmid. In
addition, we identified contamination with mouse DNA and a variety of
MLV sequences in commercially available human DNAs from leukocytes,
brain tissues, and cell lines. These results identify new sources of
MLV contamination and highlight the importance of careful
pre-screening of commercial specimens and diagnostic reagents to avoid
false-positive MLV PCR results.
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