Pignatelli Sara, Dal Monte Paola, Rossini Giada, Lazzarotto Tiziana, Gatto Maria R, Landini Maria P
Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Division Microbiology, St. Orsola General Hospital, University of Bologna, Via Massarenti 9, Bologna, Italy.
J Clin Virol. 2003 Sep;28(1):38-43. doi: 10.1016/s1386-6532(02)00236-6.
Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) clinical isolates display genetic polymorphisms, supposed to be related with strain-specific tissue-tropism and HCMV-induced immunopathogenesis. One recently discovered polymorphic gene is ORF UL73, encoding for the envelope glycoprotein gN. Among HCMV clinical strains, it shows four distinct genomic variants denoted as gN-1, gN-2, gN-3 and gN-4.
Aims of this study were to assess the prevalence of the different gN types in the populations examined and to investigate the possible relationship between genotypes and severity of congenital CMV disease.
The gN genotyping was carried out by sequencing analysis of the HCMV ORF UL73. Comparisons were made by chi-square test and contingency tables.
All the four gN genotypes can cause congenital infections and the overall distribution was as follows: gN-1, 23.6%; gN-2, 1.1%; gN-3, 12.9%; gN-4, 62.4%. None of them seems to be preferentially associated with vertical transmission or with acute outcome of congenital infection. However, considering the chronic outcome and long-term sequelae, there was a statistically significant (P<0.05) difference between congenitally infected infants with or without adverse chronic outcome.
HCMV congenital infections, which displayed a prevalence of the gN-1 variants, seem to be associated with favorable chronic outcome.
人巨细胞病毒（HCMV）临床分离株表现出基因多态性，推测与毒株特异性组织嗜性和HCMV诱导的免疫发病机制有关。最近发现的一个多态性基因是ORF UL73，它编码包膜糖蛋白gN。在HCMV临床毒株中，它显示出四种不同的基因组变体，分别记为gN-1、gN-2、gN-3和gN-4。
本研究的目的是评估所检测人群中不同gN类型的流行情况，并调查基因型与先天性CMV疾病严重程度之间的可能关系。
通过对HCMV ORF UL73进行测序分析来进行gN基因分型。采用卡方检验和列联表进行比较。
所有四种gN基因型均可引起先天性感染，总体分布如下：gN-1，23.6%；gN-2，1.1%；gN-3，12.9%；gN-4，62.4%。它们似乎均未优先与垂直传播或先天性感染的急性结局相关。然而，考虑到慢性结局和长期后遗症，有或没有不良慢性结局的先天性感染婴儿之间存在统计学显著差异（P<0.05）。
HCMV先天性感染中gN-1变体流行，似乎与良好的慢性结局相关。
