Human Polyomaviruses in Children Undergoing Transplantation, United States, 2008–2010 - - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC

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Human Polyomaviruses in Children Undergoing Transplantation, United States, 2008–2010 - - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC


Table of Contents
Volume 18, Number 9–October 2012

Dispatch

Human Polyomaviruses in Children Undergoing Transplantation, United States, 2008–2010

Article Contents

• The Study
• Conclusions
• Acknowledgments
• References
• Figure
• Table 1
• Table 2
• Suggested Citation

Erica A. Siebrasse, Irma Bauer, Lori R. Holtz, Binh-minh Le, Sherry Lassa-Claxton, Charles Canter, Paul Hmiel, Shalini Shenoy, Stuart Sweet, Yumirle Turmelle, Ross Shepherd, and David Wang 

Author affiliations: Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Suggested citation for this article

Abstract

Immunocompromised patients are at risk for disease caused by infection by some polyomaviruses. To define the prevalence of polyomaviruses in children undergoing transplantation, we collected samples from a longitudinal cohort and tested for the 9 known human polyomaviruses. All were detected; several were present in previously unreported specimen types.

BK and JC polyomaviruses (BKPyV, JCPyV) cause disease in immunocompromised persons. Both are double-stranded DNA viruses in the family Polyomaviridae. Seven additional human polyomaviruses were discovered during 2007–2011: KI polyomavirus (KIPyV) (1), WU polyomavirus (WUPyV) (2), Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) (3), human polyomavirus 6 (HPyV6) (4), human polyomavirus 7 (HPyV7) (4), trichodysplasia spinulosa-associated polyomavirus (TSPyV) (5), and human polyomavirus 9 (HPyV9) (6).
The 7 novel polyomaviruses have been detected in various specimen types; detection has been extensively reviewed for KIPyV, WUPyV, and MCPyV (7). Polyomaviruses HPyV6, HPyV7, TSPyV, and HPyV9 have been detected in skin (4,5,8); TSPyV and HPyV9 have also been detected in urine, and HPyV9 was detected in serum (6). However, only 2 of these recently identified viruses have been specifically implicated in human diseases; MCPyV is associated with Merkel cell carcinoma (3), and TSPyV has been linked to trichodysplasia spinulosa (5). Immunosuppression is a likely cofactor in both diseases. The potential pathogenicity of the other 5 novel polyomaviruses is unknown. As a first step toward exploring their disease potential, we sought to define their prevalence in immunocompromised transplant recipients. To this end, we established a longitudinal cohort of children undergoing transplantation at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.