Inter‐ and intra‐person cytomegalovirus infection in Malawian families

Abstract

Sequence polymorphisms in the gN and gO genes of cytomegalovirus (CMV) amplified from mouth rinse and urine samples of 19 Malawian patients with Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) and 58 of their first-degree relatives were investigated. CMV-DNA was amplified from 41 people (53%) from either the gN or gO region in at least one sample, from 14 people (18%) in both domains in at least one sample, and from 13 (17%) in either domain in both samples. Twenty-one (51%) were seropositive for human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV). Identical gN sequences were recovered from eight families and non-identical sequences in six, while identical gO sequences were found in three families and non-identical sequences in five. Five people, four of whom were children, each carried multitypic gN sequences or gO sequences. The findings are consistent with CMV spread along intra- and extra-household routes, and with multiple intra-host CMV infection.

Vertical Cytomegalovirus Transmission From HIV-Infected Women Randomized to Formula-Feed or Breastfeed Their Infants

“…Peripartum CMV transmission rates were similar between breastfed and formula-fed infants, and overall transmission rates were similar in both our intent-to-treat and as-treated analyses, suggesting that the high rate of CMV transmission in the formula-feeding arm was not due to misclassification of feeding modality, but rather to the acquisition of CMV via non-breast milk modes of transmission. Infections can originate from other contacts from both within and outside the household [27], and because we did not sequence CMV in this study, we are unable to definitively link transmissions between mothers and infants.…”

Human Cytomegalovirus Intrahost Evolution–A New Avenue for Understanding and Controlling Herpesvirus Infections

“…Indeed, early reports of diverse HCMV infections also demonstrated that HCMV sampled from different organs of healthy individuals could differ in gB genotype composition [14,41]. This finding has been supported in subsequent work studying other genomic loci [10,33,42]. Quantitative descriptions of the diversity have demonstrated significant differences in the level of diversity between compartments, with blood populations appearing more diverse than urine or intraocular populations [7,22].…”

Human cytomegalovirus intrahost evolution—a new avenue for understanding and controlling herpesvirus infections

“…Indeed, early reports of diverse HCMV infections also demonstrated that HCMV sampled from different organs of healthy individuals could differ in gB genotype composition [14,41]. This finding has been supported in subsequent work studying other genomic loci [10,33,42]. Quantitative descriptions of the diversity have demonstrated significant differences in the level of diversity between compartments, with blood populations appearing more diverse than urine or intraocular populations [7,22].…”