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Children's virus linked to cancer...
GROUND-breaking Australian research has discovered a respiratory virus in children which may also have links to cancer
After a five-year study, associate professors Theo Sloots and Michael Nissen of the Royal Children's Hospital in Brisbane, have found the WU polyomavirus in 44 patients, including 38 from Brisbane and six from the US.
WU stands for Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, which collaborated in the study by providing testing facilities not available in Brisbane.
Most of the patients were children aged three or younger who had been taken to hospital with classic symptoms of severe respiratory tract infection (RTI) such as coughs, fever, wheezing or shortness of breath.
"WU virus is a new virus associated with severe respiratory tract infection in children but also belongs to a family of viruses - the polyomaviruses - which have been linked with cancer," Prof Nissen told reporters today.
He said the discovery, after five years of research, was particularly exciting because it offered hope to children with severe but unidentifiable RTIs.
"We know that up to 50 per cent of children who come into hospital with severe respiratory tract disease do not go home with the cause," Prof Nissen said.
"So now we have another virus which is associated with severe respiratory viral tract disease.
"It is of great interest though that also this virus falls into a family of viruses that have been linked with cancers, so it's an exciting field of new research into causes of cancer."
It was also closely related to the papillomavirus which leads to cervical cancer.
However, Prof Nissen said that the Gardasil vaccine, which has been developed to prevent cervical cancer, could not be adapted for the polyomavirus.
He said it had been linked to brain tumours in laboratory monkeys but debate continued about whether the viruses were also associated with respiratory tumours.
However, parents with young children with coughs and colds could breathe easly.
"At this point there is no cause for alarm," Prof Nissen said.
"What we have found is a virus that we do think causes respiratory disease in children and all of those children, to our knowledge, who have had the virus, have recovered fully."
Knowing the polyomavirus was a cause of RTIs in children would enable doctors to isolate them from others with weak immune systems and stop unnecessary antibiotic medication.
It would also enable them to determine whether new anti-viral medications may be needed and whether a vaccine would be needed in the future.
Prof Sloots said the development of a vaccine from scratch could take between 15 and 20 years.
"What we need to do first of all is identify how the virus replicates in the body and that includes looking to see if it actually causes cancer," Prof Sloots said.
The two academics will follow the progress of the children identified with polyomavirus, to see if they have created antibodies to fight it and if they have any developed long-term respiratory tract disease.
Their research has been published in this month's peer reviewed scientific and medical journal, Pathogens.
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