title: SEN virus infection and its relationship to transfusion-associated hepatitis.
abstract: SEN virus (SEN-V) is a recently identified single-stranded, circular DNA virus. Two SEN-V variants (SENV-D and SENV-H) were assayed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to investigate their role in the causation of transfusion-associated non-A to E hepatitis. The incidence of SEN-V infection after transfusion was 30% (86 of 286) compared with 3% (3 of 97) among nontransfused controls (P < .001). Transfusion risk increased with the number of units transfused (P < .0001) and donor-recipient linkage for SEN-V was shown by sequence homology. The prevalence of SEN-V in 436 volunteer donors was 1.8%. Among patients with transfusion-associated non-A to E hepatitis, 11 of 12 (92%) were infected with SEN-V at the time of transfusion compared with 55 of 225 (24%) identically followed recipients who did not develop hepatitis (P < .001). No effect of SEN-V on the severity or persistence of coexistent hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection was observed. In 31 infected recipients, SEN-V persisted for greater than 1 year in 45% and for up to 12 years in 13%. SEN-V-specific RNA (a possible replicative intermediate) was recovered from liver tissue. In summary, SENV-D and -H were present in nearly 2% of US donors, and were unequivocally transmitted by transfusion and frequently persisted. The strong association of SEN-V with transfusion-associated non-A to E hepatitis compared with controls raises the possibility, but does not establish that SEN-V might be a causative agent of posttransfusion hepatitis. The vast majority of SEN-V-infected recipients did not develop hepatitis.
authors.affiliation: The Department of Transfusion Medicine, Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-1184, USA.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Umemura
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Yeo
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sottini
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Moratto
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: R Y
authors.initials: RY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Shih
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Donahue
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Primi
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Alter
mesh_terms: D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000097:blood; D001782:Blood Donors; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004266:DNA Virus Infections / Q000150:complications*; D004267:DNA Viruses / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006525:Hepatitis, Viral, Human / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008099:Liver / Q000821:virology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010361:Patients; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014019:Tissue Donors; D065227:Transfusion Reaction; D014766:Viremia / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D000410:Alanine Transaminase