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Correlations of HHV-6 viral load and plasma IL-6 concentration with HHV-6 encephalitis in allogeneic stem cell transplant recipients

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 45, pages 129–136 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

This study investigated factors associated with the development of human herpesvirus (HHV)-6 encephalitis. Among 111 enrolled subjects, 12 patients developed central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction. CNS dysfunction in four patients was found to have no association with HHV-6. The remaining eight patients displayed HHV-6 encephalitis (n=3), limbic encephalitis (HHV-6 DNA in cerebrospinal fluid was not examined; n=3) or CNS dysfunction because of an unidentified cause (n=2). Real-time PCR showed CNS dysfunction in the latter eight patients, which developed concomitant with the appearance of high plasma levels of HHV-6 DNA (⩾104 copies/ml). Overall, eight of the 24 patients with high-level HHV-6 DNA developed CNS dysfunction, whereas no patients developed CNS dysfunction potentially associated with HHV-6 infection if peak HHV-6 DNA was <104 copies/ml. We next analyzed plasma concentrations of IL-6, IL-10 and tumor necrosis factor-α among patients who displayed high-level plasma HHV-6 DNA and found elevated IL-6 concentrations preceding HHV-6 infection in patients who developed CNS dysfunction. (Mean±s.d.: 865.7±1036.3 pg/ml in patients with CNS dysfunction; 56.5±192.9 pg/ml in others; P=0.01). These results suggest that high-level HHV-6 load is necessary for the development of HHV-6 encephalitis, and systemic inflammatory conditions before HHV-6 infection form the preparatory conditions for progression to encephalopathy.

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Acknowledgements

This study was presented in part at the Sixth International Conference on HHV-6&7 in Baltimore, MD, USA on 19–22 June 2008. The financial support was provided by Oita University Faculty of Medicine; Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research 17015047).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Blood Transfusion Center, Oita University Hospital, Oita, Japan

    M Ogata & T Saikawa

  2. Department of Hematology, Oita University Faculty of Medicine, Oita, Japan

    M Ogata, T Satou, R Kawano, S Takakura, K Goto, J Ikewaki, K Kohno & J Kadota

  3. Department of Hematology, Oita Prefectural Hospital, Oita, Japan

    T Ikebe, T Ando, Y Miyazaki, E Ohtsuka & Y Saburi

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  1. M Ogata
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Correspondence to M Ogata.

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Ogata, M., Satou, T., Kawano, R. et al. Correlations of HHV-6 viral load and plasma IL-6 concentration with HHV-6 encephalitis in allogeneic stem cell transplant recipients. Bone Marrow Transplant 45, 129–136 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2009.116

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