Transduction‐induced overexpression of Merkel cell T antigens in human hair follicles induces formation of pathological cell clusters with Merkel cell carcinoma‐like phenotype

To the editor, Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare skin cancer, induced by the Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV)1 in 80% of cases (S1 in Appendix S1). Following genomic integration of MCPyV, expression of the MCPyV T antigens (TA), small T (sT) and large T (LT), is regarded as a crucial oncogenic determinant. sT and LT are both required for proliferation of MCPyV-positive tumour cells while only sT has been demonstrated to induce tumour...