Characterization of the Human Blood Virome in Iranian Multiple Transfused Patients

Abstract

Blood transfusion safety is an essential element of public health. Current blood screening strategies rely on targeted techniques that could miss unknown or unexpected pathogens. Recent studies have demonstrated the presence of a viral community (virobiota/virome) in the blood of healthy individuals. Here, we characterized the blood virome in patients frequently exposed to blood transfusion by using Illumina metagenomic sequencing. The virome of these patients was compared to viruses present in healthy blood donors. A total number of 155 beta-thalassemia, 149 hemodialysis, and 100 healthy blood donors were pooled with five samples per pool. Members of the Anelloviridae and Flaviviridae family were most frequently observed. Interestingly, samples of healthy blood donors harbored traces of potentially pathogenic viruses, including adeno-, rota-, and Merkel cell polyomavirus. Viruses of the Anelloviridae family were most abundant in the blood of hemodialysis patients and displayed a higher anellovirus richness. Pegiviruses (Flaviviridae) were only observed in patient populations. An overall trend of higher eukaryotic read abundance in both patient groups was observed. This might be associated with increased exposure through blood transfusion. Overall, the findings in this study demonstrated the presence of various viruses in the blood of Iranian multiple-transfused patients and healthy blood donors.

The human blood harbors a phageome which differs in Crohn’s disease

“…We then characterized the nature of this human blood virome. Firstly, we were able to detect eukaryotic viruses previously reported to be frequent in human blood, mainly Anelloviruses 7,10 ( Fig. S7 ).…”

“…Despite being initially thought to be sterile, increasing evidence shows that the human blood contains bacteria [1][2][3][4][5] , although they do not form a common community across individuals 6 . The blood also hosts viruses, but efforts have been mainly directed at identifying eukaryotic viruses, overlooking bacterial viruses, bacteriophages (phages) [7][8][9][10] . Phages are important members of human-associated microbiota, particularly in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) where they have been linked to a variety of diseases [11][12][13][14] .…”

Navigating Evolving Challenges in Blood Safety

“…The modulations induced by these interventions could introduce permanent changes and might lead to various illnesses [ 69 ]. Our recent investigation on the most prevalent member of the blood virome, the Anellovirus family, shows that the administration of immunosuppressive agents to liver transplant recipients [ 70 ], antiviral therapy in HBV carriers [ 71 ], multiple blood transfusions in patients with blood disorder [ 72 ], and convalescent plasma therapy in COVID-19 patients [ 73 ] has an impact on the conformation of the blood virome. Notably, there is a trace of evidence indicating a potential detrimental effect of certain Anellovirus subgroups in specific conditions, both independently and in co-infection with certain pathogenic viruses [ 74 , 75 , 76 ].…”