Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
Department of Translational Research, University of Pisa, Italy.
J Clin Virol. 2020 Dec;133:104687. doi: 10.1016/j.jcv.2020.104687. Epub 2020 Nov 6.
Torque teno virus (TTV) is a widespread anellovirus that establishes persistent infections in humans and represents the most abundant component of the human virome. TTV encodes microRNAs (miRNA) which are found both in viremic and not viremic subjects being potentially ideal tools for the virus to evade the immune system response and to maintain chronic infection in the host.
To investigate TTV-DNA loads and TTV-miRNAs expression in cerebrospinal fluids (CSF) from subjects under analysis for the assessment of neurological diseases.
Detection of TTV-DNA and TTV-miRNAs (e. g. miRNA t1a, t3b, and tth8) were carried out from CSF samples of 93 subjects with neurological diseases by using universal real-time PCR, real-time RT-PCR, and next-generation sequencing (NGS) analyses.
TTV-DNA was detected in 11 of 93 (12 %) CSFs with a mean TTV load of 155 copies/mL. Conversely, 29 CSF samples (31 %) were positive for at least one TTV-miRNA, while 15 (16 %) CSFs contained all the TTV-miRNAs examined. Overall, TTV-miRNA tth8 was detected in 62 % of samples, followed by TTV miRNA t3b (56 %), and t1a (29 %). Interestingly, TTV-miRNAs were found in CSF samples that were negative for the presence of TTV-DNA. Next-generation sequencing analysis carried out from 4 TTV-DNA negative CSF samples detected reads mapped in TTV-miRNA sequences region.
These results shed novel light on the relationship between TTV and the central nervous system and make compelling furthered studies for investigating the potential role of TTV-miRNAs in neurological disorders.
Torque teno 病毒（TTV）是一种广泛存在的微小无包膜病毒，在人类中建立持续性感染，是人类病毒组中最丰富的成分。TTV 编码 microRNA（miRNA），在病毒血症和非病毒血症患者中均有发现，是病毒逃避免疫系统反应并在宿主中维持慢性感染的潜在理想工具。
研究分析神经疾病患者脑脊液（CSF）中 TTV-DNA 载量和 TTV-miRNA 表达情况。
采用通用实时 PCR、实时 RT-PCR 和下一代测序（NGS）分析方法，对 93 例神经疾病患者的 CSF 样本进行 TTV-DNA 和 TTV-miRNA（如 miRNA t1a、t3b 和 tth8）检测。
在 93 例 CSF 中有 11 例（12%）检测到 TTV-DNA，平均 TTV 载量为 155 拷贝/mL。相反，29 例（31%）CSF 样本至少有一种 TTV-miRNA 呈阳性，而 15 例（16%）CSF 样本包含所有检测到的 TTV-miRNA。总体而言，TTV-miRNA tth8 在 62%的样本中被检测到，其次是 TTV miRNA t3b（56%）和 t1a（29%）。有趣的是，在 TTV-DNA 阴性的 CSF 样本中也发现了 TTV-miRNAs。对 4 例 TTV-DNA 阴性 CSF 样本进行的 NGS 分析检测到 TTV-miRNA 序列区域的读长映射。
这些结果为 TTV 与中枢神经系统的关系提供了新的认识，并为进一步研究 TTV-miRNA 在神经疾病中的潜在作用提供了有力依据。
