Human Bocavirus quantitative DNA detection in French children hospitalized for acute bronchiolitis.
BACKGROUND
Human Bocavirus (HBoV) is a newly discovered parvovirus whose role as a causative agent of respiratory disease remains unclear.


METHODS
We investigated the presence of HBoV by quantitative PCR in the nasopharyngeal samples of 192 French children consecutively hospitalized for acute bronchiolitis. Other common respiratory viruses were detected using immunofluorescence assays, cell culture detection, or RT-PCR assays.


RESULTS
HBoV was detected in 24 (12.5%) of 192 study children. In 14/192 cases (7%) HBoV was the sole isolate and in 10/192 (5%) it was part of a mixed viral infection. HBoV was the third most common pathogen detected after respiratory syncytial virus (45/192; 23%) and rhinovirus (24/192; 12%). It occurred more often in infants aged 1-12 months (P=0.002). Median levels of HBoV DNA genome in respiratory samples were significantly higher in patients with single HBoV infection than in patients with mixed respiratory viral infection with HBoV (4x10(8)copies/ml vs. 2x10(3)copies/ml, P<0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Our data suggest that HBoV at a high viral load could be an etiologic agent of respiratory tract disease, whereas the exact role of HBoV at a low viral load, as etiological cause or as pathophysiological co-factor of respiratory diseases, remains to be determined.
Jacques
Jérôme
J
Laboratoire de Virologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Reims, France.
Moret
Hélène
H
Renois
Fanny
F
Lévêque
Nicolas
N
Motte
Jacques
J
Andréoletti
Laurent
L
D000208:Acute Disease; D052660:Bocavirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001990:Bronchiolitis, Viral / Q000821:virology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009305:Nasopharynx / Q000821:virology; D010322:Parvoviridae Infections / Q000821:virology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D019562:Viral Load
D004279:DNA, Viral