Cloning of a human parvovirus by molecular screening of respiratory tract samples.

Abstract

The identification of new virus species is a key issue for the study of infectious disease but is technically very difficult. We developed a system for large-scale molecular virus screening of clinical samples based on host DNA depletion, random PCR amplification, large-scale sequencing, and bioinformatics. The technology was applied to pooled human respiratory tract samples. The first experiments detected seven human virus species without the use of any specific reagent. Among the detected viruses were one coronavirus and one parvovirus, both of which were at that time uncharacterized. The parvovirus, provisionally named human bocavirus, was in a retrospective clinical study detected in 17 additional patients and associated with lower respiratory tract infections in children. The molecular virus screening procedure provides a general culture-independent solution to the problem of detecting unknown virus species in single or pooled samples. We suggest that a systematic exploration of the viruses that infect humans, "the human virome," can be initiated.

Journal

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Title: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

ISSN: 0027-8424

ISSN (Print): 0027-8424

Publication date (Electronic): Sep 06 2005

Volume: 102

Issue: 36

Affiliations

[1 ] Department of Clinical Microbiology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. [e-mail]

Article

Publisher Item ID: 0504666102

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0504666102

PMC ID: 1200281

PubMed ID: 16118271

SO-VID: 9697d8cd-ab72-41a2-bdbd-41125c5739a8