主页 > 医学信息 >
【medical-news】病毒通过父亲的DNA传给儿子
They found that most babies infected with the HHV-6 virus, which causes roseola, had the virus integrated into their chromosomes. Not only that, but either the father or mother also had the virus in the chromosomes, suggesting it was a so-called germline transmission -- passed on in egg or sperm.
"This is really a unique mechanism for congenital infections," said Dr. Caroline Breese Hall, a pediatrician at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York who led the study published in the journal Pediatrics.
Her team is now investigating what this means for the children.
"If you have a chromosome that has got a virus integrated into it, what does it mean? What does it do? Can it activate again? Can it start spewing out virus and cause problems? Can you get an immune response to it?" she said in a telephone interview.
The questions are critical because nearly everybody is infected with HHV-6. It is a herpes virus that causes roseola -- an infection marked by high fever and the usual vague virus symptoms that may include respiratory or stomach problems.
About 20 percent of children also have a characteristic sudden rash that appears just as the fever breaks.
Hall's team studied 250 infants, 85 with HHV-6. Of them, 43 were born with the virus and 42 were infected later.
Most of the babies born with the virus -- a congenital infection -- had the virus in the chromosome. Hall said the assumption had been that the virus somehow crossed the placenta from mother to child, but in 86 percent of cases, it was inherited directly in the genetic material.
Just 14 percent were infected across the placenta.
Tests showed either the mother or the father -- but not both -- also had HHV-6 in the chromosomes.
"Because we know a parent already had the virus in the chromosome, we know that it didn't spontaneously wiggle its way in once the baby got it," Hall said.
There were several spots where the virus integrated into the DNA, but usually right at the end of the chromosome, where a key structure called the telomere is found. Telomeres protect the chromosome and are involved in aging and immune response.
The virus is everywhere in people who inherit it, Hall said. "In your hair, your nails, your skin, your blood, and at very high titers (levels)," she said.
The babies infected this way did not appear ill but Hall wants to follow them as they grow up to see if they develop normally. They all had antibodies to HHV-6, which is evidence of an immune reaction of some sort.
There is no drug licensed to treat HHV-6 infection.
Other viruses are known to integrate into the DNA and pass on from parent to child, but these so-called human endogenous retroviruses have never been known to cause symptoms or activate an immune response.
http://www.mphtimes.com/us/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=452:virus-is-passed-from-parent-to-child-in-the-dna&catid=63:infectious-diseases--bacteria--viruses&Itemid=79 本人已认领该文编译，48小时后若未提交译文，请其他战友自由认领。 A virus that causes a universal childhood infection is often passed from parent to child at birth, not in the blood but in the DNA, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
周二美国的研究人员称，一种可以在幼儿身上引起广泛感染的病毒通过DNA而不是血液来进行感染，这种病毒一般通过生殖途径由父亲传染给新生儿。
They found that most babies infected with the HHV-6 virus, which causes roseola, had the virus integrated into their chromosomes. Not only that, but either the father or mother also had the virus in the chromosomes, suggesting it was a so-called germline transmission -- passed on in egg or sperm.
他们发现很多感染HHV-6病毒的婴儿患有红疹，并且病毒整合进了他们的染色体中。不仅如此，他们的父亲或者母亲也被发现身体中的染色体整合进了病毒，这表明病毒可能是通过一种所谓的系感染进行传播，这种传播途径一般是靠卵细胞或者精子来实现。
"This is really a unique mechanism for congenital infections," said Dr. Caroline Breese Hall, a pediatrician at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York who led the study published in the journal Pediatrics.
来自纽约罗切斯特大学医学中心的儿科医师卡罗琳.布瑞丝.哈尔称，对于先天性感染疾病而言，这是一种奇特的机制。
Her team is now investigating what this means for the children.
她带领的团队目前正在研究这对于幼儿来说究竟有何意义。
"If you have a chromosome that has got a virus integrated into it, what does it mean? What does it do? Can it activate again? Can it start spewing out virus and cause problems? Can you get an immune response to it?" she said in a telephone interview.
阅读本文的人还阅读：
作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2010-10-16 17:11
医学,生命科学网