TT Virus Loads and Lymphocyte Subpopulations in Children with Acute Respiratory Diseases
ABSTRACT
TT virus (TTV) produces chronic plasma viremia in around 90% of healthy individuals of all ages and has, therefore, been proposed as a commensal human virus. We recently demonstrated that in children hospitalized for acute respiratory diseases high TTV loads were associated with severe forms of disease. Here, we report that in such children TTV loads showed an inverse correlation with the percentage of circulating total T and helper T cells and a direct correlation with the percentage of B cells. Thus, florid TTV replication might contribute to lymphocyte imbalances and, possibly, immunosuppressive effects, thus resembling related animal viruses.
FOOTNOTES
- Received 10 February 2003.
- Accepted 27 May 2003.
- ↵*Corresponding author. Mailing address: Virology Section and Retrovirus Center, Department of Experimental Pathology, University of Pisa, via San Zeno 37, I-56127 Pisa, Italy. Phone: 39 050 221.3641. Fax: 39 050 221.3639. E-mail: bendinelli{at}biomed.unipi.it.
- American Society for Microbiology
