Polyomavirus persistence in lymphocytes: prevalence in lymphocytes from blood donors and healthy personnel of a blood transfusion centre.

BK and JC polyomaviruses (BKV and JCV) are widespread in humans and are thought to persist and reactivate under immune alterations. In addition to the kidney, lymphoid cells have been proposed as a site of latency. However, while this was shown to occur in immunocompromised patients, discordant data were published for healthy humans.

Human immunodeficiency virus infection in vitro activates naturally integrated human papillomavirus type 18 and induces synthesis of the L1 capsid protein.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections are prevalent in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive individuals. To highlight the effect of HIV on HPV expression, HPV-18-positive HIV-permissive HeLa-T4 cells were either infected with HIV-1 or treated with Tat or with the cytokines IL-1alpha, IL-1beta, IL-6 and TNF-alpha. The presence of HPV-18 E1 (early) and L1 (late) transcripts was then determined by dot-blot or Northern blot hybridization with E1 and L1 or with genomic HPV-18 DNA probes, respectively.