Background: An important issue with respect to virus safety in xenotransplantation is the search for human analogues of porcine viruses, because transmission of a porcine virus followed by recombination with a related human virus may lead to a new emerging virus of unknown pathogenicity, host range and virulence. In case of circoviruses, two types of porcine circovirus (PCV1 and PCV2) are described, but the existence of an analogous human circovirus has not yet been investigated.
Methods: This study describes the analysis of human samples with a consensus primer-PCR approach designed to amplify conserved regions from the rep gene of circoviruses from the genus Circovirus. DNA from human sera, lymph nodes, blood and urine was extracted and investigated with this method that has led previously to the identification of a new avian circovirus.
Results: By screening 1101 samples (there of 168 from immunocompromised patients), no evidence for the existence of a human circovirus related to the genus Circovirus was obtained.
Conclusions: This result renders the existence of a human circovirus related to the porcine circoviruses more unlikely, nevertheless the presence of such a virus cannot be ruled out.