Department of Pediatrics, Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Toyoake, Aichi, Japan.
Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Toyoake, Aichi, Japan.
J Clin Virol. 2020 Nov;132:104656. doi: 10.1016/j.jcv.2020.104656. Epub 2020 Oct 5.
Entire genome of human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) that integrates into human chromosomes is called chromosomally integrated HHV-6 (ciHHV-6). Several viral infections have been suggested to be involved in autoimmune connective tissue diseases (CTDs). Reactivated HHV-6 from the integrated viral genome can induce immune responses against the virus. Thus, it is plausible that ciHHV-6 is associated with autoimmune CTDs.
We sought to determine whether the prevalence of ciHHV-6 was significantly higher in patients with autoimmune CTDs than in a healthy population.
A total of 846 peripheral blood samples collected from autoimmune CTD patients were analyzed. Since there was a large number of samples, they were pooled into 24 samples per group. Copy numbers of HHV-6 DNA were measured by real-time PCR. The threshold level for distinguishing between ciHHV-6 and active viral infection and the reliability of pooled DNA analysis were examined as initial validation experiments.
The threshold level was 1.6 × 10^6 copy/mL in whole blood. The reliability of pooled DNA analysis to identify one ciHHV-6 sample among 23 HHV-6 DNA-negative samples was high. No HHV-6 DNA was detected in any of the pooled DNA samples collected from the patients. The probability of the present study including the 846 autoimmune CTD patient's samples was statistically not different with a healthy Japanese population which was 0.2 % or 0.6 %.
There was no significant difference in the prevalence of ciHHV-6 between a healthy population and patients with autoimmune CTDs.
整合到人染色体上的人类疱疹病毒 6（HHV-6）的整个基因组称为染色体整合的 HHV-6（ciHHV-6）。已经有几种病毒感染被认为与自身免疫性结缔组织疾病（CTD）有关。来自整合病毒基因组的再激活 HHV-6 可以诱导针对该病毒的免疫反应。因此，ciHHV-6 与自身免疫性 CTD 相关是合理的。
我们旨在确定自身免疫性 CTD 患者中 ciHHV-6 的患病率是否明显高于健康人群。
分析了来自自身免疫性 CTD 患者的 846 份外周血样本。由于样本数量庞大，将它们按每组 24 份进行混合。通过实时 PCR 测量 HHV-6 DNA 的拷贝数。作为初始验证实验，检查了区分 ciHHV-6 和活跃病毒感染的阈值水平以及混合 DNA 分析的可靠性。
全血中的阈值水平为 1.6×10^6 拷贝/mL。混合 DNA 分析识别 23 份 HHV-6 DNA 阴性样本中一个 ciHHV-6 样本的可靠性很高。从患者采集的任何混合 DNA 样本中均未检测到 HHV-6 DNA。本研究包括 846 名自身免疫性 CTD 患者样本的概率在统计学上与日本健康人群无差异，为 0.2%或 0.6%。
健康人群和自身免疫性 CTD 患者中 ciHHV-6 的患病率无显著差异。
