Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1999 Aug;37(8):2538-42.
doi: 10.1128/JCM.37.8.2538-2542.1999.

TT virus infection in French hemodialysis patients: study of prevalence and risk factors

P Gallian  1 , Y Berland, M Olmer, D Raccah, P de Micco, P Biagini, S Simon, D Bouchouareb, C Mourey, C Roubicek, M Touinssi, J F Cantaloube, B Dussol, X de Lamballerie
Affiliations

TT virus infection in French hemodialysis patients: study of prevalence and risk factors

P Gallian et al. J Clin Microbiol. 1999 Aug.

Abstract

The TT virus (TTV) is a recently discovered DNA virus which was first identified in patients with non-A to -G hepatitis following blood transfusion. In this study, we tested 150 attendees of two hemodialysis (HD) units of the public hospitals of Marseilles, France, for the presence of TTV genome by using a PCR-based methodology. The overall prevalence of TTV viremia was 28% (compared to 5.3% in blood donors from the same region). We demonstrated the existence of chronic infections and superinfections by strains belonging to different genotypes. The prevalence of infection was higher in patients originating from Africa, in patients with previous blood transfusion or organ transplantation, in patients with antibody to hepatitis B core antigen, and in those with diabetes mellitus. A high prevalence of TTV infection (50%) was also observed in a population of patients with diabetes mellitus but without renal disease. No significant relationship was found between TTV viremia and hepatitis C virus or GB virus C, transaminases, age, sex, and duration of HD treatment. The PCR amplification products (located in open reading frame 1 of the TTV genome) were sequenced. These genomic sequences were submitted to phylogenetic analysis by using the Jukes-Cantor algorithm for distance determination and the neighbor-joining method for tree building. In several instances, sequences from viruses isolated in a HD unit were grouped in the same phylogenetic cluster. These results together with the different distribution of cases in the two HD units suggest there is viral transmission within each.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIG. 1
FIG. 1
Unrooted phylogenetic tree from TTV sequence alignment, including 10 isolates from French blood donors (Blood donors 01 to 10), 38 sequences retrieved from databases (identified by their GenBank accession numbers), 9 sequences from Thai isolates (Thailand 1 to 9) (9), and 41 isolates collected from HD patients (HD unit 1 patients 1 to 28, HD unit 2 patient 1 types 1a and 2, and HD unit 2 patients 2 to 12 [labeled with ∗ for patients treated in unit 1 or with ∗∗ for patients treated in unit 2]). Arrows indicate isolates with very similar sequences collected in the same HD unit. The three major branches corresponding to genotypes 1, 2, and 3 are identified, and an arrow indicates a cluster within type 2 including only French isolates. The horizontal scale bar indicates the number of nucleotide substitutions per site (0 to 0.1).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Biagini P, Gallian P, Attoui H, Cantaloube J F, de Micco P, de Lamballerie X. Determination and phylogenetic analysis of partial sequences from TT virus isolates. J Gen Virol. 1999;80:419–424. - PubMed
    1. Biagini P, Gallian P, Cantaloube J F, De Micco P, de Lamballerie X. Presence of TT virus in French blood donors and intravenous drug users. J Hepatol. 1998;29:684–685. - PubMed
    1. Cantaloube J F, Charrel R N, Attoui H, Biagini P, De Micco P, de Lamballerie X. Evaluation of four PCR systems amplifying different genomic regions for molecular diagnosis of GB virus C infections. J Virol Methods. 1997;6:131–135. - PubMed
    1. Kumar, S., K. Tamura, and M. Nei. MEGA: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis, version 1.02. Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
    1. Nishizawa T, Okamoto H, Konishi K, Yoshizawa H, Miyakawa Y, Mayumi M. A novel DNA virus (TTV) associated with elevated transaminase levels in posttransfusion hepatitis of unknown etiology. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1997;241:92–97. - PubMed