Cytomegalovirus infection could have an impact on neural crest cells and play a role in originating paraganglioma. This is the hypothesis of the research project coordinated by Prof. Renato Mariani Costantini and recently funded by AIRC, after an accurate selection by the agency’s scientific committee.

The project aims at the characterisation, at the genomic level, of a herpes-virus similar to cytomegalovirus, which prof. Mariani Costantini's research team recently identified in paragangliomas and feochromocytomas, and isolated in vitro. This virus appears to be responsible for the formation of a peripheral tumor of the nervous system, called paraganglioma, actually it seems to exploit genetic alterations that modify cells, preventing them from breathing and producing energy. The AIRC-funded project is intended to deepen the oncogenic effect of this virus and its interactions with the different cellular components of paranganglioma versus normal paragangliar tissue. The aim is to finally clarify the hypothesis that the infection caused by this new pathogen, which is assumed to be subtrack circles in the population, overlaps with an embryogenetic program of development and regeneration of the neural crest, leading to tumor formation.

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