Molecular studies on enteroviral heart disease: patterns of acute and persistent infections

Genomic and template RNA transcription in a model of persistent enteroviral infection

“…The latter workers developed single-stranded RNA probes for strand-specific detection of enteroviral RNA in order to analyse replication. It was found that, while positive strands were produced in great excess compared to negative strands in the acute phase, in the second, persistent, phase, the amounts of positive and negative strand RNA were equal in the same infected myocardial cells (Hohenadl et al, 1991;Kandolf et al, 1991;Klingel et al, 1992). It was concluded that a defective virus had established persistence and that abnormal transcription was fundamental to this.…”

Virus-Host Coevolution in a Persistently Coxsackievirus B3-Infected Cardiomyocyte Cell Line

“…In particular, coxsackieviruses of group B (CVB) (serotypes 1 to 6) have been established as highly prevalent human pathogens and are known to be associated with a variety of acute and chronic forms of diseases, including myocarditis, meningitis, and pancreatitis (31,41,42,58). Cardiac infection with coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) can result in acute myocarditis that spontaneously resolves or chronic myocarditis with prolonged viral persistence.…”

Immunosuppressive Therapy of Chronic Myocarditis in Children: Three Cases and the Design of a Randomized Prospective Trial of Therapy

“…This may be because in the past we were not able to distinguish between chronic myocarditis with persistent viral infection and autoimmune-triggered chronic myocarditis. This is an important distinction, because the use of immunosuppressive therapy might reactivate a latent viral infection [8].…”

“…The patient may experience full recovery, a chronic progressive disease, or a fulminant disease resulting in early death [3]. In one group of patients with chronic disease, viral genomes may persist in myocardial cells [1,8], thus sustaining chronic inflammation. However, in another group, chronic myocarditis develops as a result of immunologic processes despite successful elimination of the virus [11].…”