title: Use of the polymerase chain reaction to detect genomes of human immunodeficiency virus and cytomegalovirus in post-mortem tissues.
abstract: The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to amplify a 149 base-pair region of the cytomegalovirus (CMV) genome and a 551 base-pair region of the HIV-1 proviral long terminal repeat (LTR) present in DNA extracted from post-mortem tissue. Multiple tissues (n = 116) obtained from 16 patients which were subjected to PCR were also subjected to cell culture and histopathological analyses. One hundred and seven samples (92%) contained CMV DNA and 66/116 (57%) contained HIV proviral DNA at a level of > or = 10 genomes. Both viruses were detected in 60/116 (51.7%) of samples, with co-infection most frequent in the lung (69%). Cell culture for CMV detected 9.3% of the PCR-positive samples, whilst histology identified CMV inclusions in 15.9% of samples, all of which were CMV PCR-positive. CMV was most frequently detected in adrenal and lung tissues by histology. These results show that co-infection with CMV and HIV is a common occurrence in organs from AIDS patients and provide further evidence for a role of cytomegalovirus in the pathogenesis of AIDS.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pathology and Communicable Diseases, Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Webster
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: McLaughlin
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: V C
authors.initials: VC
authors.lastname: Emery
authors.forename: P D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Griffiths
mesh_terms: D017088:AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections / Q000821:virology*; D001483:Base Sequence; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003587:Cytomegalovirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D003586:Cytomegalovirus Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000821:virology*; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D016679:Genome, Viral; D006678:HIV / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016325:HIV Long Terminal Repeat; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D011533:Proviruses / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral