Detection of Viral Proteins in Human Cells Lines by Xeno-Proteomics: Elimination of the Last Valid Excuse for Not Testing Every Cellular Proteome Dataset for Viral Proteins

Chernobrovkin, Alexey L.; Zubarev, Roman A.

In the 2012 paper that refuted the link between XMRV and prostate cancer, the clinical cancer samples have been shown to be contaminated with the XMRV-infected LNCaP cell line [16] . Using gag RT-PCR, the authors found XMRV in 2003 LNCaP cells from the Cleveland Clinic laboratory and no XMRV in the 2012 LNCaP cells from the UCSF Cell Culture Facility. Here we found that XMRV-infected LNCaP cells were still used in 2011-2012 on a different continent (upon the discovery, the laboratory in question, that did not report the origin of their cells in the cited work, was immediately notified). The widely used German cell line bank DSMZ, according to their web-site information, did not test their LNCaP cells for the XMRV infection.