Cytomegalovirus-induced salivary gland pathology: resistance to kinase inhibitors of the upregulated host cell EGFR/ERK pathway is associated with CMV-dependent stromal overexpression of IL-6 and fibronectin

Background Recently we identified a relationship between human cytomegalovirus (hCMV) and human salivary gland (SG) mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) in over 90% of cases; tumorigenesis in these cases uniformly correlated with active hCMV protein expression and an upregulation of the EGFR → ERK pathway. Our previously characterized, novel mouse organ culture model of mouse CMV (mCMV)-induced tumorigenesis displays a number of histologic and molecular characteristics similar to human MEC.