Human herpesvirus 6 infection in autologous bone marrow transplant recipients: A prospective study

✍ Scribed by Moschettini, Donatella; Galieni, Piero; Valensin, Pier Egisto; Laszlo, Daniele; Scalia, Giulia; Tozzi, Monica; Lauria, Francesco; Donati, Donatella

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 65 KB
• Volume: 60
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9071(200001)60:1<39::aid-jmv7>3.0.co;2-i

✦ Synopsis

After primary infection in early life, human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) remains latent in the body and may reactivate in subjects with poor immune status. A 180-day longitudinal study of HHV-6 infection was carried out in 23 autologous bone marrow transplant recipients to evaluate reactivation of HHV-6; two of these patients underwent a double transplant. The patients were monitored prospectively for HHV-6 DNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) by hot start nested PCR. Positive samples were typed by the enzymatic restriction protocol. Positive plasma samples were also tested for HHV-6 DNA. Antibodies against HHV-6 were measured by immunofluorescence. Five and two out of 23 patients had intermittent and persistent positivity to HHV-6 DNA in PBMCs, respectively; four patients carried variant B, and the other three patients both A and B. None of the respective plasma samples were positive. Two patients were positive for HHV-6 antibodies. Since the significance of HHV-6 DNA in PBMCs is unclear, these findings do not necessarily indicate active infection but may be due to mild immunosuppression in autologous BMT recipients.