Dominance of variant A in Human Herpesvirus 6 viraemia after renal transplantation

• Main Authors: Csoma Eszter, Mészáros Beáta, Gáll Tamás, Asztalos László, Kónya József, Gergely Lajos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2011-08-01
• Series: Virology Journal
• Subjects: HHV-6; variant A; renal transplantation
• Online Access: http://www.virologyj.com/content/8/1/403

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6), mostly variant B reactivation in renal transplant patients has been published by other authors, but the pathogenetic role of HHV-6 variant A has not been clarified. Our aims were to examine the prevalence of HHV-6, to determine the variants, and to investigate the interaction between HHV-6 viraemia, human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection and clinical symptoms.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Variant-specific HHV-6 nested PCR and quantitative real-time PCR were used to examine blood samples from renal transplant patients and healthy blood donors for the presence and load of HHV-6 DNA and to determine the variants. Active HHV-6 infection was proved by RT-PCR, and active HCMV infection was diagnosed by pp65 antigenaemia test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>HHV-6 viraemia was significantly more frequent in renal transplant patients compared to healthy blood donors (9/200 vs. 0/200; p = 0.004), while prevalence of HHV-6 latency was not significantly different (13/200 vs. 19/200; p > 0.05). Dominance of variant A was revealed in viraemias (8/9), and the frequency of HHV-6A was significantly higher in active infections compared with latency in renal transplant patients (8/9 vs. 2/13; p = 0.0015). Latency was established predominantly by HHV-6B both in renal transplant patients and in healthy blood donors (11/13 and 18/19). There was no statistical significant difference in occurrence of HCMV and HHV-6 viraemia in renal transplant patients (7/200 vs. 9/200). Statistical analysis did not reveal interaction between HHV-6 viraemia and clinical symptoms in our study.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Contrary to previous publications HHV-6A viraemia was found to be predominant in renal transplant patients. Frequency of variant A was significantly higher in cases of active infection then in latency.</p>