Abstract
BackgroundAlthough human torque teno viruses (TTVs) were first discovered in 1997, still many associated aspects are not clarified yet. The viruses reveal a remarkable heterogeneity and it is possible that some genotypes are more pathogenic than others. The identification of all genotypes is essential to confirm previous pathogenicity data, and an unbiased search for novel viruses is needed to identify TTVs that might be related to disease.MethodThe virus discovery technique VIDISCA-454 was used to screen serum of 55 HIV-1 positive injecting drug users, from the Amsterdam Cohort Studies, in search for novel blood-blood transmittable viruses which are undetectable via normal diagnostics or panvirus-primer PCRs.ResultsA novel torque teno mini virus (TTMV) was identified in two patients and the sequence of the full genomes were determined. The virus is significantly different from the known TTMVs (< 40% amino acid identity in ORF1), yet it contains conserved characteristics that are also present in other TTMVs. The virus is chronically present in both patients, and these patients both suffered from a pneumococcal pneumonia during follow up and had extremely low B-cells counts.ConclusionWe describe a novel TTMV which we tentatively named TTMV-13. Further research is needed to address the epidemiology and pathogenicity of this novel virus.
Highlights
Human torque teno viruses (TTVs) were first discovered in 1997, still many associated aspects are not clarified yet
The virus is significantly different from the known torque teno mini virus (TTMV) (< 40% amino acid identity in ORF1), yet it contains conserved characteristics that are present in other TTMVs
According to the latest International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) classification [4,5], TTV has been classified into the Anelloviridae family which includes torque teno mini virus (TTMV), formerly known as TTV-like Mini virus (TLMV), and TT midi virus (TTMDV), discovered in 2000 and 2007 respectively [6,7]
Summary
Human torque teno viruses (TTVs) were first discovered in 1997, still many associated aspects are not clarified yet. Human torque teno virus (TTV) was first discovered in a Japanese patient with acute post-transfusion hepatitis in 1997 [1]. It is a small and non-enveloped virus, with the size of 30 nm diameter, which carries an approximately 3.8 kb, circular negative sense, single-stranded DNA genome [2,3]. To have a comprehensive view on TTVs and consider their possible roles in human infections, identification of all genotypes is needed, as it represents the first step towards understanding the epidemiology, the immunology, the pathogenesis and other aspects of this virus family. In this study we describe a new genotype of TTMV identified in serum of two HIV-1 positive patients, which we tentatively named TTMV-13
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