Detection of human parvovirus B19 in cancer patients using ELISA and real-time PCR

The Detection and Characterization of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 in Confirmed Measles Cases

Based on measles surveillance in Shanghai, People's Republic of China, from 2006 to 2015, we found that measles virus isolates from 40 throat swab samples exhibited atypical cytopathic effects in Vero/hSLAM cells, which was found to be a result of coinfection with measles virus (MeV) and human herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1). Serological and molecular approaches were used to confirm and characterize the coinfections in these patients. Among the 40 measles cases, measles-specific IgM was detected in 37 cases, while measles-specific IgG was detected in 27 cases. HSV-1-specific IgM and IgG were detected in 7 and 34 cases, respectively, suggesting that most of the MeV infections were primary, but that HSV-1 infection was due to the reactivation of latent virus in most cases. The titers of HSV-1 IgG in patients with either measles or measles-HSV-1 coinfection were significantly higher than those in the healthy group (P = 0.0026 and P < 0.0001, respectively); however, there was no significant difference in the titers of HSV-1 IgG in the MeV and MeV-HSV-1 coinfection patients (P = 0.105). Nucleic acids from MeV and HSV-1 were detected in 40 and 39 throat swabs, respectively. Twenty five MeV RNA sequences were genotyped, and all represented genotype H1, which is the endemic genotype in China. Sequences from the glycoprotein G gene of HSV-1 were used to classify the isolates into two distinct phylogenetic groups: 34 belonged to group A and 3 belonged to group B.

Frequency of human Parvovirus B19 among patients with respiratory infection in Iran

Background: Human parvovirus B19 was known as one of the possible cause of mild respiratory tract diseases in previous studies. However, there are some reports of acute obstructive respiratory disease and severe pneumonia. The purpose of current study was to assess the prevalence and clinical features of parvovirus B19 in respiratory infection. Methods: This study was conducted on 156 patients diagnosed with respiratory infection at the Iran University of Medical Sciencesaffiliated hospitals. After extraction of viral DNA from swab samples, detection of parvovirus B19 was performed by real-time PCR assay. Results: In 156 patient's samples, parvovirus B19 was found in 8 (5.1 %) cases including 5 males (5.9%) and 3 females (4.1%). The most common clinical symptoms were wheezing (100%), tachypnea (100%), fever (75%) and rhinorrhea/pharyngitis (75%). Conclusion: This is the first attempt to assess the prevalence of parvovirus B19 infection in Iranian patients with respiratory infection. The low frequency of parvovirus B19 detected in our study does not support the role of this virus in the development of respiratory infection. However, further studies are needed to better evaluate the etiological role of parvovirus B19 in respiratory infection.

Development of a nanoparticle-assisted PCR (nanoPCR) assay for detection of mink enteritis virus (MEV) and genetic characterization of the NS1 gene in four Chinese MEV strains

Background

Mink enteritis virus (MEV) causes mink viral enteritis, an acute and highly contagious disease whose symptoms include violent diarrhea, and which is characterized by high morbidity and mortality. Nanoparticle-assisted polymerase chain reaction (nanoPCR) is a recently developed technique for the rapid detection of bacterial and viral DNA. Here we describe a novel nanoPCR assay for the clinical detection and epidemiological characterization of MEV.

Results

This assay is based upon primers specific for the conserved region of the MEV NS1 gene, which encodes nonstructural protein 1. Under optimized conditions, the MEV nanoPCR assay had a detection limit of 8.75 × 10¹ copies recombinant plasmids per reaction, compared with 8.75 × 10³ copies for conventional PCR analysis. Moreover, of 246 clinical mink samples collected from five provinces in North-Eastern China, 50.8% were scored MEV positive by our nanoPCR assay, compared with 32.5% for conventional PCR. Furthermore no cross reactivity was observed for the nanoPCR assay with respect to related viruses, including canine distemper virus (CDV) and Aleutian mink disease parvovirus (AMDV). Phylogenetic analysis of four Chinese wild type MEV isolates using the nanoPCR assay indicated that they belonged to a small MEV clade, named “China type”, in the MEV/FPLV cluster, and were closely clustered in the same location.

Conclusions

Our results indicate that the MEV China type clade is currently circulating in domestic minks in China. We anticipate that the nanoPCR assay we have described here will be useful for the detection and epidemiological and pathological characterization of MEV.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12917-014-0312-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.