title: Human herpesvirus-6 and the course of human immunodeficiency virus infection.
abstract: The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between human herpesvirus type 6 (HHV-6) and cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and progression of AIDS disease. A group of 52 HIV-1-seropositive patients was examined for HHV-6 DNA expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and for CMV DNA in serum. We found that 21.1% (n = 52) and 12% (n = 25) of them tested positive for HHV-6 and CMV DNA, respectively. In contrast, only 3.3% (n = 29) and 0% (n = 29) of control healthy HIV-1-seronegative donors tested positive for HHV-6 and CMV, respectively. In light of these results, the possible role of HHV-6 as a cofactor in AIDS development has also been assessed by closely following, over 6 years, the course of an HIV-1-seropositive person who had a dramatic loss in the total number of CD4+ cells along with a spontaneous production of HIV-1 p24 antigen in vitro and who also showed progression to AIDS when coinfected with HHV-6. These observations have spurred our prospective analysis of the possible clinical significance of coinfection with HHV-6 and HIV.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fisiología e Immunología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Córdoba, Spain.
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Blázquez
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Madueño
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jurado
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fernández-Arcás
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Muñoz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications*; D015497:HIV-1; D006566:Herpesviridae Infections / Q000150:complications*; D015654:Herpesvirus 6, Human; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers