Frequência da infecção pelo Torque Teno Vírus (TTV), gênero Anellovirus, e sua diversidade genética em pacientes com Lúpus Eritematoso Sistêmico

Abstract

Torque Teno virus (TTV), genus Anellovirus, discovered in 1997, showed the prototype of a new family of virus, Circoviridae family. The recent knowledge of the biology of TTV had allowed constructing the hypothesis that virus can have a role as trigger for rheumatic autoimmune diseases, as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The objective of this study was to determine the correlation between the infection for TTV and systemic lupus erythematosus and to observe if the infection for TTV can modify the clinical course and the serologic profile of patients with lupus. Forty and six serum samples of lupic patients, taken care in the Rheumatology Clinic of the University Hospital of Campo Grande - Brazil, had been gotten randomly. For the controls, 46 serum samples from healthy blood donors had been used. Viral DNA was extracted of serum samples having used QIAamp DNA Blood Mini Kit (QIAGEN, Hilden, Germany).Viral DNA was amplified using nested polimerase chain reaction (nested PCR) assay. Clinical and laboratories manifestations had been gotten from its medical register. Thirty and seven percent (n=17/46) of lupic patients had presented positive TTV and viral infection was observed in only 15.2% (n=7/46) of the controls. It had a significant relation between systemic lupus erythematosus and TTV (test z, p=0.03).It did not have relation between TTV, clinical signals and serologic profile of patients evaluated in this study. TTV infection could be a trigger for the development of SLE.