Passenger virus

A passenger virus is a virus that is frequently found in samples from diseased tissue, such as tumours, but does not contribute to causing the disease.

Experimental demonstration of passenger status

Proving that a virus has no causative role can be difficult. Although none of the following signs is definitive, evidence that a virus found in diseased tissue is a passenger rather than a causative agent includes:

*injection of the virus into healthy animals without causing disease;
*the absence of the virus at the earliest stages of the disease;
*curing the viral infection using antiviral drugs or vaccination with no effect on the course of the disease.

Examples

A well-established example is lactate dehydrogenase virus, which is often found in mouse tumours. [Mongini PK, Rosenberg LT. (1976) Inhibition of lymphocyte trapping by a passenger virus in murine ascitic tumors: characterization of lactic dehydrogenase virus (LDV) as the inhibitory component and analysis of the mechanism of inhibition. "J Exp Med" 143: 100–113 (PMID 1244415) ( [http://www.jem.org/cgi/content/abstract/143/1/100 full text] )] Hepatitis G virus and Chandipura virus are possible examples in humans. [Mphahlele MJ, Lau GK, Carman WF. (1998) HGV: the identification, biology and prevalence of an orphan virus. "Liver" 18: 143–155 (PMID 9716223)] [Potharaju NR, Potharaju AK (2006) Is Chandipura virus an emerging human pathogen? "Arch Dis Child" 91: 279–280 (PMID 16492900) ( [http://adc.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/91/3/279-b#R17 full text] )] The Duesberg hypothesis posits that HIV is a passenger virus in the etiology of AIDS. [Duesberg P, Rasnick D. (1998) The AIDS dilemma: drug diseases blamed on a passenger virus. "Genetica" 104: 85–132 (PMID 10220905)]

References

ee also

* Stealth-adapted virus