       Document 0675
 DOCN  M9640675
 TI    Quantitation of human cytomegalovirus genomes in the brain of AIDS
       patients.
 DT    9604
 AU    Kuhn JE; Wendland T; Eggers HJ; Lorentzen E; Wieland U; Eing B;
       Kiessling M; Gass P; Institut fuer Virologie, Universitaet zu Koeln,
       Federal Republic; of Germany.
 SO    J Med Virol. 1995 Sep;47(1):70-82. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE
       MED/96048325
 AB    Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is one of the major pathogens causing
       neurologic disease in the immunocompromised host. A competitive nested
       polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to determine DNA load,
       distribution, and sequence variability of HCMV genomes in the brain of
       AIDS patients with and without HCMV encephalitis confirmed by histology
       and immunocytochemistry. By quantitative PCR, HCMV genomes were found to
       be distributed diffusely in the central nervous system (CNS) of all five
       patients with histologically proven HCMV encephalitis, but also in the
       brain of five of eight AIDS patients without neuropathological evidence
       of HCMV encephalitis. The viral DNA load in cases with HCMV encephalitis
       was increased 10- to 1,000-fold as compared to patients without evidence
       of encephalitis. A viral load above 6,000 copies HCMV/10(6) copies
       beta-globin was found to be highly suggestive for HCMV encephalitis.
       Characterization of PCR products by temperature gradient gel
       electrophoresis (TGGE) and direct sequencing allowed us to detect a
       sequence variability of the amplified fragment of HCMV glycoprotein B
       (gB) among different patients, but also among different HCMV foci within
       the same patient. Furthermore, two of five AIDS patients with HCMV
       encephalitis most likely experienced double infections with different
       HCMV strains. The experimental procedure described in this study should
       also be applicable to the detection of significant HCMV DNA levels in
       biopsy samples.
 DE    Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/COMPLICATIONS/*VIROLOGY  AIDS-Related
       Opportunistic Infections/*VIROLOGY  Base Sequence
       Brain/PATHOLOGY/*VIROLOGY  Cytomegalovirus/GENETICS/*ISOLATION & PURIF
       Cytomegalovirus Infections/COMPLICATIONS/*VIROLOGY  DNA, Viral/ANALYSIS
       Encephalitis, Viral/VIROLOGY  Formaldehyde  Genome, Viral  Human
       Molecular Sequence Data  Paraffin Embedding  Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
       Viral Envelope Proteins/GENETICS  JOURNAL ARTICLE

       SOURCE: National Library of Medicine.  NOTICE: This material may be
       protected by Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.Code).

