title: Increased plasma cell-free DNA level during HTNV infection: correlation with disease severity and virus load.
abstract: Cell-free DNA (cf-DNA) in blood represents a promising DNA damage response triggered by virus infection or trauma, tumor, etc. Hantavirus primarily causes two diseases: haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and Hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS), depending on different Hantavirus species. The aim of this study was to evaluate plasma cf-DNA levels in acute phase of HFRS, and to correlate plasma cf-DNA with disease severity and plasma Hanttan virus (HTNV) load. We observed the appearance of cf-DNA in 166 plasma samples from 76 HFRS patients: the plasma cf-DNA levels peaked at the hypotensive stage of HFRS, and then decreased gradually. Until the diuretic stage, there was no significant difference in plasma cf-DNA level between patients and the healthy control. Exclusively in the febrile/hypotensive stage, the plasma cf-DNA levels of severe/critical patients were higher than those of the mild/moderate group. Moreover, the plasma cf-DNA value in the early stage of HFRS was correlated with HTNV load and disease severity. In most of the patients, plasma cf-DNA displayed a low-molecular weight appearance, corresponding to the size of apoptotic DNA. In conclusion, the plasma cf-DNA levels were dynamically elevated during HFRS, and correlated with disease severity, which suggests that plasma cf-DNA may be a potential biomarker for the pathogenesis and prognosis of HFRS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, The Fourth Military Medical University, 169 Changle West Rd, Xi'an 710032, China. zhangxq@fmmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, The Fourth Military Medical University, 169 Changle West Rd, Xi'an 710032, China. immuzy@fmmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, The Fourth Military Medical University, 169 Changle West Rd, Xi'an 710032, China. immuzy@fmmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yusi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, The Fourth Military Medical University, 169 Changle West Rd, Xi'an 710032, China. merry_bg20@163.com.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, The Fourth Military Medical University, 169 Changle West Rd, Xi'an 710032, China. hzcm1981@126.com.
authors.forename: Chunmei
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, The Fourth Military Medical University, 169 Changle West Rd, Xi'an 710032, China. lq2008@fmmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, The Fourth Military Medical University, 169 Changle West Rd, Xi'an 710032, China. liubei83@163.com.
authors.forename: Bei
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, The Fourth Military Medical University, 169 Changle West Rd, Xi'an 710032, China. liuzhijia007@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Zhijia
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory, Xijing Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, 15 Changle West Rd, Xi'an 710032, China. jiayun@fmmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jiayun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Blood Transfusion, Xijing Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, 15 Changle West Rd, Xi'an 710032, China. zhangxq@fmmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xianqing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, The Fourth Military Medical University, 169 Changle West Rd, Xi'an 710032, China. fmmuzhr@fmmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhuang
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, The Fourth Military Medical University, 169 Changle West Rd, Xi'an 710032, China. immu_jin@fmmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Boquan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D018063:Hantaan virus / Q000472:pathogenicity / Q000502:physiology*; D006480:Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009691:Nucleic Acid Denaturation; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D019562:Viral Load
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral