Mother-to-child transmission of TT virus: sequence analysis of non-coding region of TT virus in infected mother-infant pairs

• Published in: Archives of virology Vol. 147; no. 4; pp. 803 - 812
• Main Authors: BAGAGLIO, S, SITIA, G, PRATI, D, CELLA, D, HASSON, H, NOVATI, R, LAZZARIN, A, MORSICA, G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wien Springer 01.04.2002; New York, NY Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Animal viral diseases; Base Sequence; Biological and medical sciences; Cloning, Molecular; DNA Virus Infections - transmission; DNA Virus Infections - virology; Epidemiology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical; Infectious diseases; Medical sciences; Microbiology; Molecular Sequence Data; Open Reading Frames; Phylogeny; Pregnancy; Prospective Studies; Sequence Alignment; Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; Torque teno virus - classification; Torque teno virus - genetics; Viral diseases; Viremia; Virology; Human; Nucleotide sequence; TT virus; Viremia; Non coding sequence; Infant; Birth; Infection; Virus; Newborn; Viral disease; DNA; Nucleotide; Serum; Vertical transmission; Child; Age
• ISSN: 0304-8608; 1432-8798
• DOI: 10.1007/s007050200027

To investigate vertical transmission of TT virus, TTV-DNA was looked for in serum samples taken from 22 mothers and their 22 infants at birth and during nine months of follow-up. Sixteen mothers at delivery and six infants within nine months of age had TTV-DNA detected by the amplification of the non coding (NC) region. Two of these newborns had positive viremia at birth. Sequence analysis of the NC region of five mother-infant pairs revealed that the TTV strains detected at three and six months of age in two of the infants were closely related to that of their mothers, whereas two that became TTV-DNA positive at three moths had a different nucleotide sequence from that of their mothers. One of the two infants with detectable viremia at birth also had a different nucleotide sequence from her mother. These findings suggest that both in utero and perinatal transmission of TT virus may occur, and that the strain detected in the infants was not invariably dominant in the mothers at delivery.