Understanding the association between chromosomally integrated human herpesvirus 6 and HIV disease: a cross-sectional study [v1; ref status: indexed, http://f1000r.es/1z7]

• Main Authors: Mundeep K. Kainth, Susan G. Fisher, Diana Fernandez, Amneris Luque, Caroline B. Hall, Anh Thi Hoang, Anisha Lashkari, Alexandra Peck, Lubaba Hasan, Mary T. Caserta
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: F1000 Research Ltd 2013-12-01
• Series: F1000Research
• Subjects: HIV Infection & AIDS: Clinical; Viral Infections (without HIV)
• Online Access: http://f1000research.com/articles/2-269/v1
• ISSN: 2046-1402

We conducted a cross-sectional investigation to identify evidence of a potential modifying effect of chromosomally integrated human herpes virus 6 (ciHHV-6) on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease progression and/or severity. ciHHV-6 was identified by detecting HHV-6 DNA in hair follicle specimens of 439 subjects. There was no statistically significant relationship between the presence of ciHHV-6 and HIV disease progression to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. However, after adjusting for use of antiretroviral therapy, all subjects with ciHHV-6 had low severity HIV disease; these findings were not statistically significant. A multi-center study with a larger sample size will be needed to more precisely determine if there is an association between ciHHV-6 and low HIV disease severity.