Viral communities associated with human pericardial fluids in idiopathic pericarditis

PLoS One. 2014 Apr 1;9(4):e93367. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093367. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Pericarditis is a common human disease defined by inflammation of the pericardium. Currently, 40% to 85% of pericarditis cases have no identified etiology. Most of these cases are thought to be caused by an infection of undetected, unsuspected or unknown viruses. In this work, we used a culture- and sequence-independent approach to investigate the viral DNA communities present in human pericardial fluids. Seven viral metagenomes were generated from the pericardial fluid of patients affected by pericarditis of unknown etiology and one metagenome was generated from the pericardial fluid of a sudden infant death case. As a positive control we generated one metagenome from the pericardial fluid of a patient affected by pericarditis caused by herpesvirus type 3. Furthermore, we used as negative controls a total of 6 pericardial fluids from 6 different individuals affected by pericarditis of non-infectious origin: 5 of them were sequenced as a unique pool and the remaining one was sequenced separately. The results showed a significant presence of torque teno viruses especially in one patient, while herpesviruses and papillomaviruses were present in the positive control. Co-infections by different genotypes of the same viral type (torque teno viruses) or different viruses (herpesviruses and papillomaviruses) were observed. Sequences related to bacteriophages infecting Staphylococcus, Enterobacteria, Streptococcus, Burkholderia and Pseudomonas were also detected in three patients. This study detected torque teno viruses and papillomaviruses, for the first time, in human pericardial fluids.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Bacteriophages / classification
  • Bacteriophages / genetics
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Coinfection
  • Endogenous Retroviruses / classification
  • Endogenous Retroviruses / genetics
  • Female
  • Genome, Viral
  • Genotype
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Male
  • Metagenome
  • Middle Aged
  • Pericardial Fluid / virology*
  • Pericarditis / diagnosis
  • Pericarditis / virology*
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Viruses / classification*
  • Viruses / genetics
  • Viruses / isolation & purification
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

The research of LF and CD is financed through a starting grant number 242729 from the European Research Council. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.