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A case of acute progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) with hyper IgM syndrome 1 is reported. Viral DNA and VP1 protein of JC virus (JCV) and BK virus (BKV) were detected by immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, semi-nested polymerase chain (PCR) and PCR-restriction enzyme analysis. JCV DNA and VP1 protein were found in the nuclei of oligodendrocytes. The non-coding control region (NCCR) and VP1 region of the JCV genome were sequenced; this revealed a novel rearrangement pattern of the NCCR in the brain tissue. The VP1 regions of brain and urine JCV were identical and of genotype type 2A. The BKV in the urine sample was genotype I. No BKV genome was found in the brain. The novel genomic rearrangement of the JCV NCCR in the brain tissue may have altered JCV pathogenesis to induce PML; the impaired immunity from hyper IgM syndrome 1 may have enabled the rearrangement. The JCV NCCR rearrangement in the brain may have originated from the archetypal form in the urine through deletion and duplication., (Copyright (c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)

Recent studies showed that SV40 is detected in >40% of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) in United States, suggesting SV40-contaminated poliovaccines widely used during the period 1955-1963 to be a major source of SV40 in NHL. We examined the presence of SV40 sequences in 122 cases with NHL and 3 with Hodgkin's lymphoma from Japan. The detection rate of SV40 sequences in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (19%) was higher than that in peripheral blood cells of normal healthy volunteers in Japan (4.7%; P < 0.05) reported previously as controls for comparison with the study results from cancer patients, suggesting a role for SV40 in the development of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. In contrast, the frequency of SV40 sequences in NHL cases born between 1951 and 1963 (12%), during which SV40-contaminated poliovaccines might have been inoculated, is not significantly different from that in cases born before 1950 (11%) or after 1964 (15%). SV40 is a new candidate etiologic factor for malignant lymphoma not only in the United States but also in Japan.