Department of Microbiology, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
J Med Virol. 2011 Aug;83(8):1418-23. doi: 10.1002/jmv.22146.
The highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) virus is a virulent virus that causes an acute febrile respiratory disease with high mortality in humans. To gain a better insight of H5N1 viral distributions in infected human tissues, the levels of viral RNA were determined in the autopsy tissues from two patients who were infected with H5N1 virus by using real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. In one patient who died on day 6 of the illness, the viral load in the lung was extremely high, whereas the levels of viral RNA in the other organs were more than 6 log lower. In the other patient who died on day 17 of the illness, the viral load was similar in the lung and other organs, and was comparable to the viral load in the extra-pulmonary tissues of the first patient. These results suggested that while the H5N1 virus can cause disseminated infection in humans, the lung is still the major site of viral replication, and viral replication in the lung in the later stages may decrease as a result of the depletion of the available target cells. In addition, the mRNA levels of the tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were found to be associated with the viral titers.
高致病性禽流感病毒（H5N1）是一种烈性病毒，可导致人类发生急性发热性呼吸道疾病，死亡率很高。为了更深入地了解 H5N1 病毒在感染人体组织中的分布情况，我们采用实时逆转录-聚合酶链反应（real-time RT-PCR）方法，检测了两例感染 H5N1 病毒患者的尸检组织中的病毒 RNA 水平。其中一名患者在发病第 6 天死亡，肺部的病毒载量极高，而其他器官中的病毒 RNA 水平则低 6 个对数级以上。另一名患者在发病第 17 天死亡，肺部和其他器官中的病毒载量相似，与第一例患者的肺外组织中的病毒载量相当。这些结果表明，H5N1 病毒虽然可导致人类发生全身性感染，但肺部仍是病毒复制的主要部位，在疾病后期，由于可用靶细胞的耗竭，肺部的病毒复制可能会减少。此外，还发现肿瘤坏死因子-α（TNF-α）的 mRNA 水平与病毒滴度相关。
