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Highly diverse TTV population in infants and their mothers
1Department of Pediatrics, Nagoya City University Medical School, Kawasumi-cho, Mizuho-ku, 467-8601, Nagoya, Japan. sugiyama@med.nagoya-cu.ac.jp
Insights
Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) positive mothers transmitted Torque Teno Virus (TTV) to their infants. While TTV DNA was detected in most infants after birth, sequences often differed significantly from maternal strains.
Area of Science:
- Virology
- Hepatology
- Pediatrics
Background:
- Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) positive mothers are a potential source of vertical transmission for other viruses.
- Torque Teno Virus (TTV) is a common, yet not fully understood, human virus.
- Understanding TTV transmission dynamics from mother to infant is crucial for assessing its clinical significance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the transmission of Torque Teno Virus (TTV) from HCV-positive mothers to their infants.
- To analyze the genetic relatedness of TTV strains between mothers and their offspring.
- To determine the timing and persistence of TTV infection in infants.
Main Methods:
- Enrollment of infants born to serum HCV-positive mothers.
- Detection of TTV DNA in maternal and infant serum samples using PCR.
- Comparison of nucleotide sequences from a noncoding region of TTV between mothers and infants.
Main Results:
- High rates of TTV detection in both mothers (83%) and infants (75%).
- TTV DNA was not detected at 1 month but appeared between 1.5 and 8 months post-birth, persisting thereafter.
- Infant TTV strains showed lower intrahost heterogeneity and often significant genetic divergence (>10%) from maternal strains.
Conclusions:
- Vertical transmission of TTV from HCV-positive mothers to infants occurs frequently.
- Infant TTV strains are frequently distinct from maternal strains, suggesting complex transmission or evolution.
- Further research is needed to elucidate the mechanisms and implications of TTV mother-to-infant transmission.
Abstract:
Infants born to serum HCV-positive 12 mothers were enrolled in the study. Nucleotide sequences amplified by primers deduced from a noncoding region were compared between mothers and their infants. The rates for detection of serum TTV in 12 mothers and their infants were 10/12 (83%) and 9/12 (75%), respectively. Serum TTV DNA was not detected in any infant at 1 month of age, but was detected for the first time between 1.5 and 8 months after birth. Positivity persisted thereafter throughout the follow-up period. In seven randomly selected mother-infant pairs, intrahost TTV heterogeneity was lower in infants than in mothers. Furthermore, one of seven mother-infant pairs showed a high degree of similarity (98.7-100%) in all clones, while in four infants, all nucleotide sequences differed by >10% from those of their mothers. However, the degree of homology in the two mother-infant pairs was 89-98.7% in family 2 and 88.1-99.4% in family 5. In the present study, with only one exception, it was shown that TTV from infants is not identical to TTV from mothers. The mechanism is discussed briefly in this paper.