Increased plasma cell-free DNA level during HTNV infection: correlation with disease severity and virus load

• Published in: Viruses 2014-07, Vol.6 (7), p.2723-2734
• Main Authors: Yi, Jing, Zhang, Yun, Zhang, Yusi, Ma, Ying, Zhang, Chunmei, Li, Qi, Liu, Bei, Liu, Zhijia, Liu, Jiayun, Zhang, Xianqing, Zhuang, Ran, Jin, Boquan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Apoptosis; Biomarkers; Case-Control Studies; cf-DNA; Child; Disease; Disease Progression; disease severity; Diuretics; DNA, Viral - blood; Female; Fever; Hantaan virus; Hantaan virus - pathogenicity; Hantaan virus - physiology; Hantavirus; Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome - blood; Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome - diagnosis; Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome - pathology; Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome - virology; HFRS; Humans; Infections; Male; Middle Aged; Nucleic Acid Denaturation; Pathogenesis; Plasma; Severity of Illness Index; Trauma; Viral Load; Viruses
• ISSN: 1999-4915; 1999-4915
• DOI: 10.3390/v6072723

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.