Abstract
Virological confirmation of varicella zoster virus (VZV) vasculopathy is provided by presence of virus in the cerebral arteries, frequently associated with inflammation. Yet, cerebral arteries from normal subjects have never been studied for VZV DNA or antigen. We analyzed 63 human cerebral arteries from 45 subjects for VZV DNA and antigen, control herpes simplex virus (HSV)-1 DNA and antigen, and leukocyte-specific CD45 antigen. No cerebral arteries contained VZV or HSV-1 DNA or antigen; eight arteries from seven subjects contained leukocytes expressing CD45. Thus, the presence of VZV antigen in cerebral arteries of patients with stroke is likely to be clinically significant.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Berger TM, Caduff JH, Gebbers JO (2000) Fatal varicella-zoster virus antigen-positive giant cell arteritis of the central nervous system. Pediatr Infect Dis J 19:653–656
Cohrs RJ, Gilden DH (2007) Prevalence and abundance of latently transcribed varicella-zoster virus genes in human ganglia. J Virol 81:2950–2956
Debrus S, Sadzot-Delvaux C, Nikkels AF, Piette J, Rentier B (1995) Varicella-zoster virus gene 63 encodes an immediate-early protein that is abundantly expressed during latency. J Virol 69:3240–3245
Doyle PW, Gibson G, Dolman CL (1983) Herpes zoster ophthalmicus with contralateral hemiplegia: identification of cause. Ann Neurol 14:84–85
Eidelberg D, Sotrel A, Horoupian DS, Neumann PE, Pumarola-Sune T, Price RW (1986) Thrombotic cerebral vasculopathy associated with herpes zoster. Ann Neurol 19:7–14
Fukumoto S, Kinjo M, Hokamura K, Tanaka K (1986) Subarachnoid hemorrhage and granulomatous angiitis of the basilar artery: demonstration of the varicella-zoster-virus in the basilar artery lesions. Stroke 17:1024–1028
Gilden DH, Kleinschmidt-DeMasters BK, Wellish M, Hedley-Whyte ET, Rentier B, Mahalingam R (1996) Varicella zoster virus, a cause of waxing and waning vasculitis: the New England Journal of Medicine case 5–1995 revisited. Neurology 47:1441–1446
Nagel MA, Traktinskiy I, Azarkh Y et al (2011) Varicella zoster virus vasculopathy: analysis of virus-infected arteries. Neurology 77:364–370
Nagel MA, Traktinskiy I, Stenmark KR, Frid MG, Choe A, Gilden D (2013) Varicella- zoster virus vasculopathy: immune characteristics of virus-infected arteries. Neurology 80:62–66
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by Public Health Service grants AG032958 (D.G.) from the National Institutes of Health. We thank Marina Hoffman for editorial review and Lori DePriest for manuscript preparation.
Conflict of interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nagel, M.A., Choe, A., Khmeleva, N. et al. Search for varicella zoster virus and herpes simplex virus-1 in normal human cerebral arteries. J. Neurovirol. 19, 181–185 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13365-013-0155-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13365-013-0155-0