Endogenous human herpesviruses 6A/B

Louis Flamand^{1

2}, Jesse Arbuckle³, Pascale Bonnafous⁴, Vincent Descamps⁵, Joshua A Hill⁶, Ruth Jarrett⁷, Keith Jerome⁶, Benedikt B Kaufer⁸, Rie Koide⁹, Anthony L Komaroff¹⁰, Peter Medveczky¹¹, Hiroki Miura¹², Yasuko Mori¹³, Nicholas Parrish¹⁴, Philip E Pellett¹⁵, Michael Wood⁷, Tetsushi Yoshikawa¹², Danielle M Zerr^{16

17}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology, Infectious Disease and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
² Axe Maladies Infectieuses et Immunitaires, Centre de Recherche du CHU de Québec, Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
³ Molecular Genetics Section, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious iseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
⁴ Laboratoire de Virologie, Sorbonne Université, INSERM, Institut Pierre Louis d'Epidémiologie et de Santé Publique, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Hôpitaux Universitaires Pitié-Salpêtrière Charles-Foix, Paris, France.
⁵ Service de dermatologie, Hôpital Bichat, AP-HP, Paris, France.
⁶ Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, Washington, USA.
⁷ MRC-University of Glasgow Center for Virus Research, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
⁸ Institute of Virology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
⁹ Genome Immunobiology RIKEN Hakubi Research Team, RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research and RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences, Yokohama, Japan.
¹⁰ Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
¹¹ College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA.
¹² Department of Pediatrics, Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Toyoake, Japan.
¹³ Division of Clinical Virology, Center for Infectious Diseases, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan.
¹⁴ Department of Surgery, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
¹⁵ Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA.
¹⁶ Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, Washington, USA.
¹⁷ Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.

PMID: 40748144
PMCID: PMC12456139
DOI: 10.1128/jvi.01054-25

Endogenous human herpesviruses 6A/B

Louis Flamand et al. J Virol. 2025.

. 2025 Sep 23;99(9):e0105425.

doi: 10.1128/jvi.01054-25. Epub 2025 Aug 1.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology, Infectious Disease and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
² Axe Maladies Infectieuses et Immunitaires, Centre de Recherche du CHU de Québec, Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
³ Molecular Genetics Section, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious iseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
⁴ Laboratoire de Virologie, Sorbonne Université, INSERM, Institut Pierre Louis d'Epidémiologie et de Santé Publique, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Hôpitaux Universitaires Pitié-Salpêtrière Charles-Foix, Paris, France.
⁵ Service de dermatologie, Hôpital Bichat, AP-HP, Paris, France.
⁶ Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, Washington, USA.
⁷ MRC-University of Glasgow Center for Virus Research, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
⁸ Institute of Virology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
⁹ Genome Immunobiology RIKEN Hakubi Research Team, RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research and RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences, Yokohama, Japan.
¹⁰ Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
¹¹ College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA.
¹² Department of Pediatrics, Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Toyoake, Japan.
¹³ Division of Clinical Virology, Center for Infectious Diseases, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan.
¹⁴ Department of Surgery, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
¹⁵ Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA.
¹⁶ Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, Washington, USA.
¹⁷ Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.

PMID: 40748144
PMCID: PMC12456139
DOI: 10.1128/jvi.01054-25

Abstract

Human herpesviruses 6A and 6B (HHV-6A/B) can integrate into the germline, resulting in inherited viral DNA-now proposed to be called "endogenous HHV-6A/B (eHHV-6A/B)." Present in 0.2-3% of humans, this integrated DNA is passed to offspring and may reactivate, posing health risks such as angina or lupus. To reduce confusion caused by varied terminology, researchers advocate using "eHHV-6A/B" for inherited forms and reserving "chromosomally integrated" for somatic integrations only.

Keywords: HHV-6; eHHV-6; endogenous HHV-6; human herpesvirus 6; iciHHV-6; inherited chromosomally integrated HHV-6.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

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Endogenous human herpesviruses 6A/B

Affiliations

Endogenous human herpesviruses 6A/B

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

References

MeSH terms

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Full Text Sources