Human cytomegalovirus-encoded α-chemokines exhibit high sequence variability in congenitally infected newborns

Ravit Arav-Boger, Charles B. Foster, Jian Chao Zong, Robert F. Pass

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

40 Scopus citations

Abstract

Most congenital human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infections are asymptomatic, but some lead to severe disease. We hypothesized that differences in disease manifestations may be partially explained by differences in viral strains. We recently reported an association between unique long (UL) 144 gene polymorphisms and clinical disease. We now report on the sequence heterogeneity of 2 potential HCMV virulence genes that encode α-chemokines: UL146 and UL147. These 2 genes were highly divergent in cultured isolates obtained from 23 newborns with congenital HCMV infection and were difficult to categorize. Unlike our findings for the contiguous UL144 gene, no specific UL146 or UL147 genotype was associated with disease outcome.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)788-791
Number of pages4
JournalJournal of Infectious Diseases
Volume193
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 15 2006
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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