title: Detection and genetic relationship of dengue virus sequences in seventeen-year-old paraffin-embedded samples from Cuba.
abstract: This study describes the use of the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to generate dengue 2 amplicons from paraffin-embedded autopsy tissues collected in Cuba 17 years ago. The presumptive diagnoses had been made only by clinical evolution without serologic confirmation. This study confirms once again that dengue 2 virus was directly associated with the fatal cases in children and illustrates the potential of the RT-PCR for retrospective diagnosis of dengue cases 17 years after death. A close similarity in the genomic sequences of the dengue 2 RNA detected in tissue samples from fatal cases and those dengue 2 Cuban strains that had been previously investigated confirms the appropriate genomic classification of the etiologic agent associated with the 1981 dengue hemorrhagic fever Cuban epidemic.
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Viral Diseases, Havana, Cuba.
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Sariol
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Pelegrino
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Martinez
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Arteaga
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kouri
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Guzman
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001344:Autopsy; D001483:Base Sequence; D002648:Child; D016384:Consensus Sequence; D003462:Cuba / Q000453:epidemiology; D017931:DNA Primers; D003715:Dengue / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000469:parasitology*; D003716:Dengue Virus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000469:parasitology; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000469:parasitology; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016612:Paraffin Embedding; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013154:Spleen / Q000469:parasitology
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D012367:RNA, Viral