Hindawi Publishing Corporation Clinical and Developmental Immunology Volume 2013, Article ID 839719, 17 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/839719 Review Article New Insights on Human Polyomavirus JC and Pathogenesis of Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy Anna Bellizzi,1 Elena Anzivino,1 Donatella Maria Rodio,1 Anna Teresa Palamara,2,3 Lucia Nencioni,2 and Valeria Pietropaolo1,4 1 Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, “Sapienza” University of Rome, P.le Aldo Moro, 5-00185 Rome, Italy 2 Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Institute Pasteur, Cenci-Bolognetti Foundation, “Sapienza” University of Rome, P.le Aldo Moro, 5-00185 Rome, Italy 3 San Raffaele Pisana Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization and Health Care, Via Val Cannuta, 247-00166 Rome, Italy 4 Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, Center for Biotechnology, College of Science and Technology , Temple University, 1900 N. 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Valeria Pietropaolo;
[email protected] Received 7 January 2013; Accepted 6 March 2013 Academic Editor: Serena Delbue Copyright © 2013 Anna Bellizzi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. John Cunningham virus (JCV) is a member of the Polyomaviridae family. It was first isolated from the brain of a patient with Hodgkin disease in 1971, and since then the etiological agent of the progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) was considered. Until the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pandemic, PML was rare: in fact HIV-induced immunodeficiency is the most common predisposing factor accounting for 85% of all instances of PML.