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Potential Screening Assay for Undetectable Viruses on the Basis of Their Capacity To Induce Alpha Interferon Production

Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California,¹ Institute of Clinical and Molecular Virology, German National Reference Centre for Retroviruses, Erlangen, Germany²

Received 18 March 2004/ Returned for modification 28 April 2004/ Accepted 13 May 2004

High interferon production by plasmacytoid dendritic cells (PDC) was unexpectedly noted after their coculture with CD4⁺ cells from a healthy donor whose cells subsequently showed human herpesvirus type 6 and 7 infections. This release of interferon was not observed with uninfected normal CD4⁺ cells. Induction of PDC interferon production could help screen for covert virus infections.