Oncogenesis Induced by Polyomavirus (BKV)

Polyomavirus BK (BKV) or human Polyomavirus is an icosahedral, non-enveloped virus classified under the Polyomaviridae family. The oncogenic properties of BKV belong to both an early domain and late domains. BKV encodes important Tag proteins such as LTAg and STAg “Tumour antigen; Tag. They succeeded in altering and stimulating infected cells to uncontrolled proliferation experimentally in both culture cell and animal models. This study aims to summarize the important oncogenic pathway that BKV used to initiate tumor. Both BKV proteins LTAg and STAg interfere with many cellular pathways/proteins such as retinoblastoma proteins, PP2A, P53, MAP kinases pathway, tumor suppressor proteins, telomerase, endothelial growth factor, leading to uncontrol of cell proliferation and apoptosis. This study concluded that stimulation of cell growth and secretion of extra endothelial growth factor in the absence of antiapoptotic proteins increases BKV proteins to mediate cancer development.