Enteroviral infection in Greek AIDS patients

Prolonged intestinal replication of polioviruses has not previously been studied in Greek AIDS patients. The objective of our study was to estimate the prevalence of enteroviral infections in this population.

Nineteen stool samples were investigated from 19 different patients. Collection took place at the Hellenic Red Cross Hospital, Athens, Greece, between August and October 2002. Samples were processed as follows: virus isolation was attempted by cell culture using three different cell lines (human epidermoid carcinoma [Hep]-2, rabdomyosarcoma [RD], and mouse cells genetically modified in order to express the polio virus receptor in their cell surface [L20(B)]). An enterovirus-specific reverse transcription (RT)-PCR was then applied. Finally, seroneutralization tests were performed on 11 blood samples taken from a number of the patients who had supplied stool samples.

Samples were negative for enterovirus detection of any serotype on all cell lines. No cytopathic effect was observed. Enterovirus-specific RT-PCR assays were also negative for the detection of enteroviral RNA. Seroneutralization revealed relatively high antibody titers against poliovirus 1 and 2 in three of the eleven blood samples.

Greek AIDS patients are not vulnerable to enteroviral infections and do not constitute a potential reservoir of poliovirus-prolonged excretion in Greece.