Presence and clinical impact of human herpesvirus‐6 infection in patients with moderate to critical coronavirus disease‐19

Abstract

Human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) may cause serious diseases in immunocompromised individuals. SARS-CoV-2/HHV-6 coinfection has been emphasized in previous works, mostly case reports, small series, or epidemiological studies, but few are known about its real clinical outcomes. Here we present a real-world pilot study aiming to understand the frequency and the clinical impact of HHV-6 coinfection in moderate to critically ill patients hospitalized due to COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 and HHV-6 were evaluated in nasopharyngeal samples at the hospital admission of suspected COVID-19 patients. From 173 consecutive cases, 60 were SARS-CoV-2 positive and 13/60 (21.7%) were HHV-6 positive after identified as the HHV-6B species by a Sanger sequencing. The SARS-CoV-2+/HHV-6+ group was younger but not significant for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity, and cancer, but significant among therapeutic immunosuppressed patients (as systemic lupus erythematosus and kidney transplant patients). In the medical records, only sparse data on cutaneous or neurological manifestations were found. Biochemical and hematological data showed only a trend towards hyperferritinemic status and lymphopenia. In conclusion, despite the impressive high frequency of HHV-6 coinfection in SARS-CoV-2 positive cases, it did not impact general mortality. We suggest larger future prospective studies to better elucidate the influence of HHV-6 reactivation in cases of COVID-19, designed to specific assessment of clinical outcomes and viral reactivation mechanisms.

Diagnosis of human herpesvirus 6A association infertility by RT-qPCR and detection sanger sequencing

“…Regarding the sequences test, the results showed the percentage of similarity with the studied strains at a rate ranging between (96.63-93.64%) as shown in the table (2) two samples were selected based on the concentration of the virus, cycles, different age groups, gender in addition to the sample source areas at the time of collection. (2020) which show that males are more susceptible to injury compared to females, and also agreement with study Alazzam et al (2022) .In our study examine the similarity and variance between strains by observing the genetic deficiency with Sanger Sequencing technology was amplified from the serum and semen samples and results of the examination displayed a percentage going between (96.63-93.64%)according to National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is agreement with study (Lino et al, 2022).…”

Herpesvirus and neurological manifestations in patients with severe coronavirus disease

“…This information highlights the importance of the early screening of HSV-1 reactivation in patients with COVID-19-related complications and the necessity of appropriate treatment and avoidance of worse outcomes. However we did not find any significant association between the detection of other herpesviruses and worse outcomes, as reported in previous studies [ 35 , 38 , 40 ].…”

Persistent SARS-CoV-2 Infection, EBV, HHV-6 and Other Factors May Contribute to Inflammation and Autoimmunity in Long COVID

“…By carrying stretches of telomeric repeats at their linear genome, the variants HHV-6A and HHV-6B are able to integrate into human chromosomes and become latent [ 160 ]. This virus has been found in several human diseases, including autoimmunity [ 161 , 162 , 163 , 164 , 165 , 166 , 167 , 168 , 169 , 170 , 171 , 172 , 173 , 174 , 175 , 176 , 177 , 178 , 179 , 180 , 181 , 182 , 183 , 184 , 185 , 186 , 187 , 188 , 189 ], ME/CFS [ 190 , 191 , 192 , 193 ], mitochondrial dysfunction [ 193 , 194 ], and in patients with moderate to critical COVID-19 [ 42 , 43 , 44 , 195 , 196 ]. Among the autoimmune diseases associated with HHV-6, the most frequently cited is multiple sclerosis (MS) [ 170 , 171 , 172 , 173 , 174 , 175 , 176 , …”