New Delhi, Dec 4 || UK researchers have found a common childhood virus that can trigger DNA damage leading to bladder cancer later in life.
Tackling the virus early could open the door to preventing bladder cancer later, said the team from the University of York.
The study, published in Science Advances, revealed that after being contracted in childhood, the BK virus usually lies dormant in the kidney.
BK virus infections do not have obvious symptoms, but physicians have learned a lot about the virus from the experiences of kidney transplant recipients who have to take immunosuppressants to prevent the immune system from targeting their new kidney.
In laboratory studies using the human tissue that lines the urinary tract (urothelium), the team observed DNA damage patterns caused by the cell's antiviral defences after controlled exposure to BK virus -- the childhood infection identified earlier as lying dormant in the kidney.