Deep sequencing applied to the analysis of viromes in patients with beta-thalassemia

• Published in: Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo Vol. 63; pp. 1 - 7
• Main Authors: Valença, Ian Nunes, Santos, Rafael Bezerra dos, Peronni, Kamila Chagas, Sauvage, Virginie, Vandenbogaert, Mathias, Caro, Valérie, Silva Junior, Wilson Araújo da, Covas, Dimas Tadeu, Silva-Pinto, Ana Cristina, Laperche, Syria, Kashima, Simone, Slavov, Svetoslav Nanev
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: São Paulo Instituto de Medicina Tropical de Sao Paulo 01.01.2021; Instituto de Medicina Tropical; Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo; Universidade de São Paulo (USP)
• Subjects: Beta-thalassemia; Bioinformatics; Blood diseases; Blood transfusions; Emerging viruses; Hemotherapy; Hepatitis B; Hepatitis C; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; HIV; Human health and pathology; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Infections; Infectious diseases; Life Sciences; Metagenomics; Next-generation sequencing; Original; Outpatient care facilities; Patients; Seroepidemiologic Studies; Threats; TROPICAL MEDICINE; Viral infections; Virome; Zika virus; Emerging viruses; Metagenomics; Beta-thalassemia; Next-generation sequencing; Hemotherapy; Virome
• ISSN: 1678-9946; 0036-4665; 1678-9946
• DOI: 10.1590/S1678-9946202163040

To date, blood banks apply routine diagnosis to a specific spectrum of transfusion-transmitted viruses. Even though this measure is considered highly efficient to control their transmission, the threat imposed by emerging viruses is increasing globally, which can impact transfusion safety, especially in the light of the accelerated viral discovery by novel sequencing technologies. One of the most important groups of patients, who may indicate the presence of emerging viruses in the field of blood transfusion, is the group of individuals who receive multiple transfusions due to hereditary hemoglobinopathies. It is possible that they harbor unknown or unsuspected parenterally-transmitted viruses. In order to elucidate this, nucleic acids from 30 patients with beta-thalassemia were analyzed by Illumina next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics analysis. Three major viral families: Anelloviridae, Flaviviridae and Hepadnaviridae were identified. Among them, anelloviruses were the most representative, being detected with high number of reads in all tested samples. Human Pegivirus 1 (HPgV-1, or GBV-C), Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) were also identified. HBV and HCV detection was expected due to the high seroprevalence in patients with beta thalassemia. Our results do not confirm the presence of emerging or unsuspected viruses threatening the transfusion safety at present, but can be used to actively search for viruses that threaten blood transfusion safety. We believe that the application of viral metagenomics in multiple-transfused patients is highly useful to monitor possible viral transfusion threats and for the annotation of their virome composition.