Vago L, Cinque P, Sala E, D'Arminio Monforte A, Lazzarin A, Costanzi G; International Conference on AIDS.

Int Conf AIDS. 1994 Aug 7-12; 10: 10 (abstract no. 334B).

L. Sacco Hospital, University of Milan, Italy.

OBJECTIVE. To evaluate the presence of JC virus-DNA in the brains of AIDS patients with and without Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy (PML). METHODS. Autopsy brain and spinal cord from 15 patients with AIDS and PML and from 16 patients with AIDS and no histopathological diagnosis of PML were examined. In all cases 5 sections from fronto-parietal lobes, basal nuclei, cerebellum and spinal cord were studied. JCV-DNA was demonstrated by (1) nested PCR on DNA extracted from paraffin-embedded sections of all tissue blocks examined, and (2) in situ hybridization (ISH) with a biotin-labeled DNA probes (ENZO, NY) in at least one section in PML+ cases and in all the PCR positive sections from control patients without PML. RESULTS: PML patients: All the sections with histological evidence of PML were positive with PCR and ISH for JCV-DNA. JCV-DNA was also amplified in 60% of sections without histological features of PML. AIDS patients without PML: 44% (7/16) had at least one section with a positive PCR; of them only 3/7 (43%) were positive with ISH. On the whole, ISH was positive in 19% of this group of patients. CONCLUSIONS: JCV-DNA can be demonstrated with nested PCR in about half of the patients without histopathological evidence of PML. ISH is positive in only half of PCR+ cases; this confirms that in AIDS JCV can be present both in latent and minimally reactivated state.

Publication Types:

• Meeting Abstracts

Keywords:

• Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
• Brain
• Central Nervous System
• DNA Probes
• Humans
• In Situ Hybridization
• Leukoencephalopathy, Progressive Multifocal
• Polymerase Chain Reaction
• Transcription Factors

Other ID:

• 94370997

UI: 102209827

From Meeting Abstracts