Clinical and Developmental Immunology

Volume 2013 (2013), Article ID 236081, 5 pages

http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/236081

Research Article

Infection and Coinfection of Human Rhinovirus C in Stem Cell Transplant Recipients

Filippo Canducci,¹ Maurizia Debiaggi,² Elisa Rita Ceresola,³ Michela Sampaolo,³ Emilio Paolo Alessandrino,⁴ Roberto Brerra,² Aurora Piazza,² and Massimo Clementi³

¹Università degli studi dell’Insubria, Via Ravasi 2, 21100 Varese, Italy

²University of Pavia, Corso Strada Nuova 65, 27100 Pavia, Italy

³Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Via Olgettina 58, 20132 Milan, Italy

⁴Fondazione IRCCS San Matteo Hospital, Viale Camillo Golgi 19, 21100 Pavia, Italy

Received 31 July 2012; Accepted 30 January 2013

Academic Editor: Rossana Cavallo

Copyright © 2013 Filippo Canducci et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract.

In 54 adult stem cell transplant recipients, the presence and persistence of human rhinoviruses (including the novel lineage C) were evaluated by molecular detection and phylogenetic analysis, independently from respiratory symptoms. In the same group of patients, the presence of other coinfecting respiratory pathogens, including the novel enterovirus 109, was also evaluated.

1. Introduction

Human rhinoviruses (HRVs) are common agents of human infections [1]. Due to their similar genomic organization, they are classified within the same family Picornaviridae together with the human enteroviruses (HEV) [2, 3]. However, the common genomic features reflect modestly the characteristics of these viruses in terms of tropism and pathogenic potential. HRVs generally cause mild infections, replicating in the upper respiratory tract, but, in infants and immunocompromised patients, HRVs can reach the lower respiratory tract causing serious illnesses and act as pathogens or copathogens in bronchitis, bronchiolitis, and pneumonia [4, 5]. Recently a new HRV lineage designated HRV-C has been identified using molecular methods and associated with severe clinical presentations in infants and immunocompromised adults [6]. The majority of HEVs instead replicate in the gastrointestinal tract, eventually spreading to other organs such as the heart or the central nervous system giving rise to serious diseases. Only a few HEV genotypes can occasionally be identified in the respiratory secretions of patients with lower respiratory tract infections [5, 7]. Moreover, a novel HEV (HEV 104) was identified in Switzerland and later in other countries often in association with respiratory signs [7, 8]. Finally, a novel HEV (HEV 109) was molecularly identified in the nose and throat swab samples collected between June 2007 and June 2008 from children enrolled in a cohort study of influenza-like illness in Nicaragua, in some cases also associated with enteric symptoms [9].

In the present study, the prevalence and persistence and the pathogenic potential of HRVs were retrospectively evaluated by molecular analysis and phylogenetic reconstruction in sequential nasopharyngeal aspirates obtained from immunosuppressed hematopoietic stem cell transplantation adult recipients. In the same cohort the presence of other coinfecting respiratory pathogens, including the novel HEV 109, was also evaluated.

2. Methods

A total of 175 archived respiratory samples (nasopharyngeal aspirates) were obtained from 50 allogeneic and 4 autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplant recipient patients recruited at the Division of Hematology, IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo (Pavia, Italy) regardless of respiratory symptoms, as described [10, 11]. Respiratory samples were consecutively obtained after informed consent from October 1st, 2004 to April 2007. From one to nine samples from each patient were collected every 30 days up to 180 days after transplantation. At each time point all the clinical data were collected. RNA was purified from all samples using the Qiagen RNA mini kit (Qiagen, Germany) following the manufacturer protocol. To investigate HRV infections, all samples, were subjected to first round amplification after sample extraction using Primers P1-1 (CAA GCA CTT CTG TYW CCC C) and P3-1 (ACG GAC ACC CAA AGT AG); and semi-nested amplification was performed using forward primer P1-1 and three reversed primers P2-1 (CAA GCA CTT CTG TYW CCC C), P2-2 (TTA GCC ACA TTC AGG AGC C) and P2-3 (TTA GCC GCA TTC AGG GG) as described previously [12]. Since HEV 109 was initially cross-amplified also with the previous amplification protocol (designed to amplify the widest number of Picornaviruses), we decided to further evaluate HEV 109 prevalence by using specific primers targeting the NTR region of HEV 109 (EV109 VP1 123F, 5′-GGA GAC TGG AGC AAC TAG TAA AG-3′; EV109 VP1 363R, 5′-GGT GAA CAT TTC CAA TTT CCT ACG-3′).

All the amplification products were sequenced bidirectionally to confirm amplification specificity and virus typing by phylogenetic analysis. Molecular identification and typing of enterovirus and rhinovirus positive samples were performed with MEGA 3.1 software after ClustalW alignment and manual sequence editing with BioEdit. Phylogenetic relationships were estimated using MEGA V3.1 (neighbor-joining method by using Tajima-Nei model as estimated by using Modeltest; the α value used in MEGA was previously estimated directly from the data by using PAUP).

Since multiple infections are frequently detected in respiratory samples of patients with respiratory symptoms and to better clarify the pathogenetic role of picornaviruses in coinfections, all specimens positive for HRVs or HEV 109, were also assayed for the presence of other thirteen respiratory viruses, including parainfluenza viruses (PIV 1–3), influenza A and B viruses, human metapneumovirus (hMPV), human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV), and adenoviruses, using a multiplex PCR strategy (Seeplex RV12 ACE Detection, Seegene, Rockville). Moreover, rhinovirus positive samples were also tested for human bocaviruses (hBoV), human coronaviruses (hCoV) and of the recently identified WU and KI polyomaviruses, using protocols described previously [13, 14].

3. Results and Discussion

Thirty seven out of the 175 samples (from 23 transplant patients) tested positive for HRV infection.

Eight of the 23 HRV positive patients were also coinfected by one or more respiratory virus (Table 1); thirteen of the 23 patients were asymptomatic. Subtyping of HRV samples allowed to identify 15 HRV-A strains, 1 HRV-B strain, and 7 HRV belonging to the novel C lineage (Table 1 and Figure 1). In 2 out of the 7 HRV-C samples coinfections with hMPV or hCoV were identified and both were symptomatic. All of the other monoinfected HRV-C positive samples were asymptomatic. Finally, 8 out of the 15 HRV-A strains and the HRV-B strains resulted to be associated with upper respiratory symptoms such as rhinorrhea, pharingodinia or tussis, being 4 of them coinfected with other pathogens.

Table 1: Picornavirus positive samples. Samples’ ID (as shown in the phylogenetic tree) and time of collection are shown. Result of phylogenetic subtyping, coinfections, and respiratory symptoms are also reported.

Patient
Sample ID
Days from transplantation
Picornavirus subtype
Coinfections
Respiratory symptoms

1
ID4
15
HRV-A2
hMPV, hCoV
No

ID5
25
HRV-A2
hMPV
No

ID9
35
HRV-A2

No

2
ID333
30
HRV-C19
hMPV
Rhinorrhea

3
ID6
−5
HRV-A2
hMPV, hCoV
No

ID7
15
HRV-A2

No

ID11
35
HRV-A2
hMPV
No

4
ID26
15
HRV-A2

No

5
ID229
60
HRV-A73/41

Pharingodinia

6
ID33
−30
HRV-A65

Rhinorrhea

7
ID318
0
HRV-C19

No

8
ID331
60
HRV-A64/94

No

9
ID336
15
HRV-C8

No

10
ID19
−5
HRV-A2
hMPV
No

ID40
30
HRV-A65

Rhinorrhea

ID29
60
HRV-A41

Rhinorrhea

11
ID343
30
HRV-C19

No

12
ID35
−5
HRV-A65
hMPV
Rhinorrhea

ID25
0
HRV-A2
hMPV, hCoV
Rhinorrhea

13
ID342
90
HRV-C8
hCoV
Rhinorrhea

14
ID39
15
HRV-A53

Tussis

ID32
30
HRV-A53

No

15
ID329
15
HRV-C19

No

16
ID133
15
HRV-A65

No

ID160
60
HRV-B

Rhinorrhea

17
ID286
0
HRV-C2

No

18
ID127
15
HRV-A88

No

ID147
60
HRV-A88

Pharyngodynia

19
ID222
120
HRV-A76

No

20
ID161
90
HRV-A44

No

21
ID117
90
HRV-A10
PIV3
Rhinorrhea

22
ID3
−5
HRV-A11
hMPV
No

ID8
15
HRV-A11
hMPV
No

ID12
30
HRV-A11
hMPV
No

23
ID36
0
HRV-A53

No

24
ID175
180
HEV-109

Pharingodinia

hMPV: human metapneumovirus; hCoV: human coronaviruses; PIV3: parainfluenza virus type 3.

Figure 1: Genotyping of human rhinoviruses amplified from transplant patients. Genetree of human rhinovirus VP1 sequences. Reference sequences were obtained from the Picornavirus Study Group database (http://www.picornastudygroup.com/). Samples amplified from patients are indicated by a filled black circle.

The novel HEV 109 could be identified in a symptomatic immunocompromised adult from a respiratory sample collected at the beginning of 2006. The tedious pharngodynia suffered by this patient in the absence of other coinfecting respiratory viruses suggests a direct pathogenetic role of this virus as speculated in initial observations [9]. Overall, HRV infections were common and frequently asymptomatic in this group of patients, including the majority of rhinoviruses infections due to HRV-C strains. In two patients with rhinorrhea, the HRV-C strains were detected together with other coinfecting viral pathogens. These results do not confirm the previously observed high pathogenic potential of this lineage, at least in immunocompromised hosts [6].

As previously documented for hMPV infections in immunocompromised patients [10, 11], not only sequential infections by different HRV subtypes were identified (patients 10 and 16), but long (up to 45 days) viral shedding was observed in four out of 23 patients (patients 1, 3, 18, and 22) not constantly associated with symptoms. Nevertheless as recently suggested, symptomatic or asymptomatic viral infections can trigger acute rejection and obliterative bronchiolitis in lung transplant recipients and warrant a continuous monitoring in immunocompromised patients, with methods able to identify an always wider panel of potential viral pathogens [15].

Contribution

F. Canducci and M. Debiaggi contributed equally to this study.

Acknowledgment

The authors are grateful to Rosa Angela Pignataro for sample sequencing.

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