Novel human polyomaviruses in pregnancy: higher prevalence of BKPyV, but no WUPyV, KIPyV and HPyV9.

BACKGROUND

Immunosuppression due to pregnancy may lead to higher susceptibility to infections and reactivation of latent infections, such as BK polyomavirus (BKPyV). There is lack of information about the prevalence of novel human polyomavirus 9 (HPyV9), WU (WUPyV) and KI (KIPyV) during pregnancy.

OBJECTIVES

To study whether pregnancy results in higher prevalence of HPyV9, WUPyV, KIPyV and their correlation with BKPyV.

STUDY DESIGN

Plasma, urine and throat swab samples from 100 pregnant and 100 non pregnant women were screened for the presence of WUPyV, KIPyV, HPyV9 and BKPyV by PCR.

RESULTS

No WUPyV DNA was detected in plasma, urine and respiratory samples from pregnant and non pregnant women. KIPyV DNA was found in two plasma samples from non pregnant women (2%) and not detected in other samples from neither pregnant nor non pregnant women. HPyV9 DNA was determined in all sample types of pregnant and non pregnant women, respectively. There were no significant differences between pregnant and non pregnant women in HPyV9 DNA frequencies for plasma (2% vs. 6%), urine (3% vs. 2%) and respiratory samples (2% vs. 2%). Prevalence of BKPyV in urine samples was significantly higher (p=0.039) in pregnant women (13%) then in non pregnant women (4%); co infection with KIPyV and/or HPyV9 was not detected.

CONCLUSIONS

In contrast with BKPyV, infection with WUPyV, KIPyV and HPyV9 was not detected more frequently during pregnancy. To the best of our knowledge HPyV9 was detected first in respiratory samples in our study.