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Prevalence of human herpesvirus 6 variant A and B infections in bone marrow transplant recipients as determined by polymerase chain reaction and sequence-specific oligonucleotide probe hybridization.

Department of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

ABSTRACT

An oligotyping methodology was devised by using the polymerase chain reaction and sequence-specific oligonucleotide probe hybridization in order to discriminate the A and B variants of human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6). Comparative DNA sequence analysis of portions of the U1102 (variant A) and Z29 (variant B) genomes revealed polymorphic regions which allowed for the synthesis of variant-specific and consensus oligonucleotide probes. These probes were found to hybridize exclusively to their respective HHV-6 variants. This strategy was then further tested by evaluating 16 clinical isolates derived from patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation to determine the subtype prevalence of HHV-6 infection in these patients. All clinical isolates were documented to be of variant B, indicating that the majority of bone marrow transplantation patients may be preferentially infected with this HHV-6 subtype. This oligotyping strategy may be useful in defining the relative prevalence of HHV-6A and HHV-6B infections in patient populations potentially at risk for HHV-6 disease.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• De Bolle, L., Naesens, L., De Clercq, E. (2005). Update on Human Herpesvirus 6 Biology, Clinical Features, and Therapy. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 18: 217-245 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Drobyski, W. R., Knox, K. K., Majewski, D., Carrigan, D. R. (1994). Fatal Encephalitis Due to Variant B Human Herpesvirus-6 Infection in a Bone Marrow-Transplant Recipient. NEJM 330: 1356-1360 [Full Text]