The frequency of cytomegalovirus non-ELR UL146 genotypes in neonates with congenital CMV disease is comparable to strains in the background population

• Published in: BMC infectious diseases 2021-04, Vol.21 (1), p.386-386, Article 386
• Main Authors: Berg, Christian, Rosenkilde, Mette M, Benfield, Thomas, Nielsen, Lene, Sundelin, Thomas, Lüttichau, Hans R
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amino Acid Motifs; Amino Acid Sequence; Amino acids; Base Sequence; Biobanks; Capillary electrophoresis; Case-Control Studies; cCMV; Chemokines; Chemokines, CXC - chemistry; Chemokines, CXC - genetics; Complications; Congenital diseases; CXC chemokines; Cytomegalovirus; Cytomegalovirus - genetics; Cytomegalovirus infections; Cytomegalovirus Infections - blood; Cytomegalovirus Infections - epidemiology; Cytomegalovirus Infections - urine; Cytomegalovirus Infections - virology; Cytomegaloviruses; DBS; Denmark - epidemiology; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Disease; Diseases; DNA; DNA, Viral - blood; DNA, Viral - genetics; ELR; Female; Gene sequencing; Genes; Genetic aspects; Genomes; Genotype; Genotypes; Hearing loss; HIV; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Identification and classification; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Infant, Newborn, Diseases - blood; Infant, Newborn, Diseases - epidemiology; Infant, Newborn, Diseases - urine; Infant, Newborn, Diseases - virology; Infants (Newborn); Infections; Male; Neonates; Nucleotide sequence; Pediatric research; Polymorphism, Genetic; Registration; Retrospective Studies; Risk factors; Statistics; Strain analysis; Strains (organisms); UL146; Urinary tract; Urine; vCXCL1; Viral Load; Viral Proteins - chemistry; Viral Proteins - genetics; Virulence
• ISSN: 1471-2334; 1471-2334
• DOI: 10.1186/s12879-021-06076-w

Congenital cytomegalovirus disease (cCMV) is common and can be fatal or cause severe sequelae. Circulating strains of cytomegalovirus carry a high number of variable or disrupted genes. One of these is UL146, a highly diverse gene with 14 distinct genotypes encoding a CXC-chemokine involved in viral dissemination. UL146 genotypes 5 and 6 lack the conserved ELR motif, potentially affecting strain virulence. Here, we investigate whether UL146 genotypes 5 and 6 were associated with congenital CMV infection. Viral DNA was extracted and UL146 sequenced from 116 neonatal dried blood spots (DBS) stored in the Danish National Biobank since 1982 and linked to registered cCMV cases through a personal identifier. These sequences were compared to UL146 control sequences obtained from CMV DNA extracted from 83 urine samples from children with suspected bacterial urinary tract infections. Three non-ELR UL146 genotypes (5 and 6) were observed among the cases (2.6%) and two were observed among the controls (2.4%; P > 0.99). Additionally, no significant association with cCMV was found for the other 12 genotypes in a post-hoc analysis, although genotype 8 showed a tendency to be more frequent among cases with 12 observations against three (P = 0.10). All fourteen genotypes were found to have little intra-genotype variation. Viral load, gender, and sample age were not found to be associated with any particular UL146 genotype. No particular UL146 genotype was associated with cCMV in this nationwide retrospective case-control study. Associations between CMV disease and disrupted or polymorph CMV genes among immunosuppressed people living with HIV/AIDS and transplant recipients should be investigated in future studies.