High-Throughput Sequencing-Based Investigation of Viruses in Human Cancers by Multienrichment Approach

Sarah Mollerup, Maria Asplund, Jens Friis-Nielsen, Kristín Rós Kjartansdóttir, Helena Fridholm, Thomas Arn Hansen, José Alejandro Romero Herrera, Christopher James Barnes, Randi Holm Jensen, Stine Raith Richter, Ida Broman Nielsen, Carlotta Pietroni, David E Alquezar-Planas, Alba Rey-Iglesia, Pernille V S Olsen, Ewa Rajpert-De Meyts, Line Groth-Pedersen, Christian von Buchwald, David H Jensen, Robert GniadeckiEstrid Høgdall, Jill Levin Langhoff, Imre Pete, Ildikó Vereczkey, Zsolt Baranyai, Karen Dybkaer, Hans Erik Johnsen, Torben Steiniche, Peter Hokland, Jacob Rosenberg, Ulrik Baandrup, Thomas Sicheritz-Pontén, Eske Willerslev, Søren Brunak, Ole Lund, Tobias Mourier, Lasse Vinner, Jose M G Izarzugaza, Lars Peter Nielsen, Anders Johannes Hansen

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Viruses and other infectious agents cause more than 15% of human cancer cases. High-throughput sequencing-based studies of virus-cancer associations have mainly focused on cancer transcriptome data.

METHODS: In this study, we applied a diverse selection of presequencing enrichment methods targeting all major viral groups, to characterize the viruses present in 197 samples from 18 sample types of cancerous origin. Using high-throughput sequencing, we generated 710 datasets constituting 57 billion sequencing reads.

RESULTS: Detailed in silico investigation of the viral content, including exclusion of viral artefacts, from de novo assembled contigs and individual sequencing reads yielded a map of the viruses detected. Our data reveal a virome dominated by papillomaviruses, anelloviruses, herpesviruses, and parvoviruses. More than half of the included samples contained 1 or more viruses; however, no link between specific viruses and cancer types were found.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study sheds light on viral presence in cancers and provides highly relevant virome data for future reference.

Original languageEnglish
JournalThe Journal of Infectious Diseases
Volume220
Issue number8
Pages (from-to)1312-1324
ISSN0022-1899
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Oct 2019

Bibliographical note

© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

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