title: Real-time quantitative PCR detection of four human bocaviruses.
abstract: Human bocavirus (HBoV) was discovered in 2005 and is associated with respiratory tract symptoms in young children. Three additional members of the genus Bocavirus, HBoV2, -3, and -4, were discovered recently from fecal specimens, and early results indicate an association between HBoV2 and gastrointestinal disease. In this study, we present an undifferentiating multiplex real-time quantitative PCR assay for the detection of these novel viruses. Differentiation of the individual bocavirus species can be subsequently achieved with corresponding singleplex PCRs or by sequencing. Both multiplex and singleplex assays were consistently able to detect ≤10 copies of HBoV1 to -4 plasmid templates/reaction, with dynamic quantification ranges of 8 logs and 97% to 102% average reaction efficiencies. These new assays were used to screen stool samples from 250 Finnish patients (median age, 40 years) that had been sent for diagnosis of gastrointestinal infection. Four patients (1.6%; median age, 1.1 years) were reproducibly positive for HBoV2, and one patient (0.4%; 18 years of age) was reproducibly positive for HBoV3. The viral DNA loads varied from <10(3) to 10(9) copies/ml of stool extract. None of the stool samples harbored HBoV1 or HBoV4. The highly conserved sequence of the hydrolysis probe used in this assay may provide a flexible future platform for the quantification of additional, hitherto-unknown human bocaviruses that might later be discovered. Our results support earlier findings that HBoV2 is a relatively common pathogen in the stools of diarrheic young children, yet does not often occur in the stools of adults.
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, Haartman Institute, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. kalle.kantola@helsinki.fi
authors.forename: Kalle
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kantola
authors.forename: Mohammadreza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sadeghi
authors.forename: Jenni
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Antikainen
authors.forename: Juha
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kirveskari
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Delwart
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hedman
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Söderlund-Venermo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005243:Feces / Q000821:virology; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000821:virology*; D056661:Human bocavirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010322:Parvoviridae Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000821:virology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D019562:Viral Load; D014773:Virology / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult