title: Bioportfolio: lifelong persistence of variant and prototypic erythrovirus DNA genomes in human tissue.
abstract: Human erythrovirus is a minute, single-stranded DNA virus causing many diseases, including erythema infectiosum, arthropathy, and fetal death. After primary infection, the viral genomes persist in solid tissues. Besides the prototype, virus type 1, two major variants (virus types 2 and 3) have been identified recently, the clinical significance and epidemiology of which are mostly unknown. We examined 523 samples of skin, synovium, tonsil, or liver (birth year range, 1913-2000), and 1,640 sera, by qualitative and quantitative molecular assays for the DNA of human erythroviruses. Virus types 1 and 2 were found in 132 (25%) and 58 (11%) tissues, respectively. DNA of virus type 1 was found in all age groups, whereas that of type 2 was strictly confined to those subjects born before 1973 (P < 0.001). Correspondingly, the sera from the past two decades contained DNA of type 1 but not type 2 or 3. Our data suggest strongly that the newly identified human erythrovirus type 2 as well as the prototype 1 circulated in Northern and Central Europe in equal frequency, more than half a century ago, whereafter type 2 disappeared from circulation. Type 3 never attained wide occurrence in this area during the past > or =70 years. The erythrovirus DNA persistence in human tissues is lifelong and represents a source of information about our past, the Bioportfolio, which, at the individual level, provides a registry of one's infectious encounters, and at the population level, a database for epidemiological and phylogenetic analyses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, Haartman Institute, University of Helsinki, FI-00290, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Päivi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Norja
authors.forename: Kati
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hokynar
authors.forename: Leena-Maija
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Aaltonen
authors.forename: Renwei
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Annamari
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ranki
authors.forename: Esa K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Partio
authors.forename: Olli
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kiviluoto
authors.forename: Irja
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Davidkin
authors.forename: Tomi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Leivo
authors.forename: Anna Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Eis-Hübinger
authors.forename: Beate
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Hans-Peter
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tolba
authors.forename: Olli
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Vapalahti
authors.forename: Antti
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vaheri
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Söderlund-Venermo
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hedman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004267:DNA Viruses / Q000235:genetics*; D019218:Erythrovirus / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation / Q000235:genetics*; D016679:Genome, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008099:Liver / Q000821:virology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010322:Parvoviridae Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000821:virology*; D012867:Skin / Q000821:virology; D013583:Synovial Membrane / Q000821:virology; D013997:Time Factors