Human herpesvirus-6 and-7 in the brain microenvironment of persons with neurological pathology and healthy people
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Date
2021-02-27
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Abstract
During persistent human beta-herpesvirus (HHV) infection, clinical manifestations may not appear. However, the lifelong influence of HHV is often associated with pathological changes in the central nervous system. Herein, we evaluated possible associations between immunoex-pression of HHV-6,-7, and cellular immune response across different brain regions. The study aimed to explore HHV-6,-7 infection within the cortical lobes in cases of unspecified encephalo-pathy (UEP) and nonpathological conditions. We confirmed the presence of viral DNA by nPCR and viral antigens by immunohistochemistry. Overall, we have shown a significant increase (p < 0.001) of HHV antigen expression, especially HHV-7 in the temporal gray matter. Although HHV-infected neurons were found notably in the case of HHV-7, our observations suggest that higher (p < 0.001) cell tropism is associated with glial and endothelial cells in both UEP group and controls. HHV-6, predominantly detected in oligodendrocytes (p < 0.001), and HHV-7, predominantly detected in both astrocytes and oligodendrocytes (p < 0.001), exhibit varying effects on neural homeostasis. This indicates a high number (p < 0.001) of activated microglia observed in the temporal lobe in the UEP group. The question remains of whether human HHV contributes to neurological diseases or are markers for some aspect of the disease process.
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Funding Information: This research was supported by the Latvian Council of Science Grant Nr.478/2012 and fundamental and applied research project of the Latvian Council of Science LZP-2020/2-0069. The authors would like to thank Svetlana Chapenko for nPCR data curation, and Silvija Roga, certified pathologist, and Ojars Teteris certified pathologist, for collecting of study material. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Keywords
Frontal lobe, Human herpesvirus 6, Human herpesvirus 7, Immune re-sponse, Immunohistochemistry, PCR, Temporal lobe, 1.6 Biological sciences, 2.2 Electrical engineering, Electronic engineering, Information engineering, 1.1. Scientific article indexed in Web of Science and/or Scopus database, Catalysis, Molecular Biology, Spectroscopy, Computer Science Applications, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
Citation
Skuja, S, Svirskis, S & Murovska, M 2021, 'Human herpesvirus-6 and-7 in the brain microenvironment of persons with neurological pathology and healthy people', International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 22, no. 5, 2364, pp. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22052364