Human Cytomegalovirus DNA in Plasma and Serum Specimens of ...

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Dec 27, 2001 - The genome of human CMV consists of a large (about. 230,000-bp) double-stranded linear DNA molecule which is encapsidated within a ...
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY, Nov. 2002, p. 4105–4113 0095-1137/02/$04.00⫹0 DOI: 10.1128/JCM.40.11.4105–4113.2002 Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Vol. 40, No. 11

Human Cytomegalovirus DNA in Plasma and Serum Specimens of Renal Transplant Recipients Is Highly Fragmented Rene´ Boom,1 Cees J. A. Sol,1 Tim Schuurman,1 Alex van Breda,1 Jan F. L. Weel,1 Marcel Beld,1 Ineke J. M. ten Berge,2 Pauline M. E Wertheim-van Dillen,1 and Menno D. de Jong1* Section of Clinical Virology, Department of Medical Microbiology,1 and Department of Internal Medicine,2 Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Received 27 December 2001/Returned for modification 23 March 2002/Accepted 4 August 2002

Quantitation of cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNA in plasma and serum by PCR is increasingly used to identify patients at risk for developing CMV disease and to monitor the efficacy of antiviral therapy. Although CMV DNA levels are generally interpreted as viral loads, the exact nature of the viral DNA in these specimens is unknown. We studied the state of CMV DNA in plasma and serum specimens obtained from three renal transplant recipients at peak viral DNA levels during primary CMV infection. For this purpose, DNA isolated from these specimens was fractionated by size, and CMV DNA levels in the resulting DNA fractions were measured by quantitative PCR targeted at large (578-bp) and small (134-bp) amplicons. These experiments showed that the molecular sizes of DNA fragments from which CMV DNA is amplified were small (