Persistent/Chronic Viral Co-infections In COVID-19 Patients In Latvia

Description

Objectives. Several SARS-CoV-2 peak protein heptapeptides have been shown to have similarity to human proteome heptapeptides, which apparently explains the autoimmune nature of this SARS-CoV-2. Co-infections have been reported in severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) patients but there is limited information on coinfections by other viruses triggering autoimmunity in
COVID-19 patients. In view of the above, the impact of existing co-infections on the clinical manifestations of COVID-19 patients cannot be ruled out, therefore we analysed the presence of 12 persistent/chronic viral infection markers in biological samples from COVID-19 patients in Latvia. Materials and Methods. In total 92 [41 (44.6%) male, median age 61 years; 51 (55.4%) female, median age 65 years] hospitalized COVID-19 patients were included. Presence of 12 viral genomic sequences in 92 DNA samples isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and cell-free blood plasma was tested by multiplex PCR (Allplex Respiratory Panel 4, Allplex Meningitis-V1 Assay and Allplex Meningitis-V2 Assay, Seegene Inc., Republic of Korea). Results. In total 30 out of 92 (32.6%) PBMC samples were Epstein-Barr virus positive, 17 out of 92 (18.5%) samples were human herpesvirus 7 positive and one sample – human herpesvirus 6 positive. No plasma samples were positive for any of the viruses tested. For 6 (6.5%) patients, co-infection of Epstein-Barr virus and human herpesvirus 7 was detected, and for one patient – Epstein-Barr virus and human herpesvirus 6. Conclusions. Epstein-Barr virus is the most common chronic/persistent co-infection among hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Latvia, followed by human herpesvirus 7 infection. Given that all these herpesviruses are also triggers for autoimmune diseases, it is possible that their co-infection
with SARS-CoV-2 may affect the course of the disease, making it more severe and triggering autoimmune processes. (445539 3min News).

Period	16 Jun 2021 → 18 Jun 2021
Event title	1st Conference of the Society for Virology: Tackling Global Viral Epidemics
Event type	Conference
Conference number	1
Organiser	World Society for Virology
Location	South AfricaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International