CMV PCR monitoring in leucocytes of transplant patients.

Background: The presumed latency of cytomegalovirus (CMV) in leucocytes and the sensitivity of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) raise a question of its clinical value.

Objectives: To develop and standardize a CMV PCR as a diagnostic tool for CMV infection in solid organ and bone marrow transplant patients by comparing it to a likewise standardized isolation, rapid isolation and to clinical symptoms.

Study Design: The material comprised 822 EDTA peripheral blood samples from 96 solid organ and 119 bone marrow transplant patients.

Detection of CMV-matrix pp65 antigen in leucocytes by immunofluorescence as a marker of CMV disease.

The finding that active cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is associated with an increased mortality after organ transplantation and the introduction of successful antiviral treatment render more urgent the development of rapid and accurate diagnostic methods. Rapid immunodiagnosis of active CMV infection was investigated by means of immunofluorescence staining of leucocytes by monoclonal antibodies. Monoclonals directed against the matrix protein, pp65, and ClonabR monoclonal antibody, which has been claimed to be directed against immediate early antigens, were used.

[Study of the multiplication in cell cultures of two strains of para-influenza virus type 3. III. Multiplication in BHK 21 cells].

Study was conducted on the multiplication of two strains (C243 and D) of parainfluenza virus type 3 in BHK 21 cells. Multiplication curve of the virus was established and immunohistochemical aspects of the process were investigated. Chronological study of successive steps of the formation and development of viral components allowed to see that the virus multiplication rate is low in this cell system.

[Effect of immunization with an inactivated influenza vaccine, NIVGRIP, on the viral population and clinical course of patients with chronic non-bacterial pharyngitis].

Study was conducted on 20 subjects with non bacterial chronic rhinopharyngitis. Forty-one virus strains, mainly adenoviruses, type 3 parainfluenza virus, influenza and type 1 herpes viruses, as well as enteroviruses were isolated from samples collected at regular intervals. After the NIVGRIP (R) vaccination, the number of subjects with viruses present in the pharynx decreased by 75% (from 20 to 5 positive patients) and that of isolates from 41 to 6 (80% positive samples before vaccination against 10% after immunization).

Effect of the oral administration of NIVGRIP inactivated influenza vaccine on virus carriage in the nasopharynx of children aged 0-5 years.

The NIVGRIP inactivated influenza vaccine was administered by oral route to 11 children of a semi-closed pre-school community, found to carry viruses in their nasopharynx. Periodic virological investigations demonstrated that after vaccination virus carriage disappeared completely in 7 children; in the remaining 4 cases there was a considerable decrease (from 14 to 6) in the number of virus strains isolated. The virus isolates obtained after vaccination were represented exclusively by enteroviruses (Coxsackie B1 and B3, poliovirus type 1), in contrast with the wider range of viral agents (adeno-, parainfluenza, herpes, Coxsackie, and polioviruses) detected prior to vaccine administration.