Extinct type of human parvovirus B19 persists in tonsillar B cells

Parvovirus B19 (B19V) DNA persists lifelong in human tissues, but the cell type harbouring it remains unclear. We here explore B19V DNA distribution in B, T and monocyte cell lineages of recently excised tonsillar tissues from 77 individuals with an age range of 2–69 years. We show that B19V DNA is most frequent and abundant among B cells, and within them we find a B19V genotype that vanished from circulation >40 years ago. Since re-infection or re-activation are unlikely with this virus type, this finding supports the maintenance of pathogen-specific humoral immune responses as a consequence of B-cell long-term survival rather than continuous replenishment of the memory pool. Moreover, we …

Persistence of Human Bocavirus 1 in Tonsillar Germinal Centers and Antibody-Dependent Enhancement of Infection

Human bocavirus 1 (HBoV1), a common pediatric respiratory pathogen, can persist in airway secretions for months hampering diagnosis. It also persists in tonsils, providing potential reservoirs for airway shedding, with the exact location, host cell types, and virus activity unknown.

Kadonneeksi luultu virustyyppi löytyi ikääntyvien B-soluista

Purification and analysis of polyhistidine-tagged human parvovirus B19 VP1 and VP2 expressed in insect cells

Human parvovirus B19 is an autonomously replicating human pathogen with a specific tropism for human erythroid progenitor cells. There is an interest in producing empty nucleocapsids of B19 as they can be used as tools in molecular biology and diagnostics. Native B19 virus particles are formed from two structural viral proteins, VP1 and VP2. The VP2 protein alone is able to self assemble and consequently form virus-like particles (VLPs) in heterologous expression systems. Purification of recombinant VLPs has been conducted using various traditional methods. These include laborious and time-consuming, e.g. cesium chloride or sucrose gradient ultracentrifugation steps, allowing limited workin…

T helper cell-mediated interferon-gamma expression after human parvovirus B19 infection: persisting VP2-specific and transient VP1u-specific activity.

SummaryHuman parvovirus B19 is a small non-enveloped DNA virus with an icosahedral capsid consisting of proteins of only two species, the major protein VP2 and the minor protein VP1. VP2 is contained within VP1, which has an additional unique portion (VP1u) of 227 amino acids. We determined the ability of eukaryotically expressed parvovirus B19 virus-like particles consisting of VP1 and VP2 in the ratio recommended for vaccine use, or of VP2 alone, to stimulate, in an HLA class II restricted manner, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) to proliferate and to secrete interferon gamma (IFN-γ) and interleukin (IL)-10 cytokines among recently and remotely B19 infected subjects. PBMC reactiv…