Characterization of the Human Blood Virome in Iranian Multiple Transfused Patients
Marijn Thijssen,
Gholamreza Khamisipour,
Mohammad Maleki,
Timothy Devos,
Guangdi Li,
Marc Van Ranst,
Jelle Matthijnssens,
Mahmoud Reza Pourkarim
Affiliations
Marijn Thijssen
Laboratory for Clinical and Epidemiological Virology, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Rega Institute for Medical Research, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Gholamreza Khamisipour
Department of Hematology, Faculty of Allied Medicine, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr 75146-33196, Iran
Mohammad Maleki
Blood Transfusion Research Centre, High Institute for Research and Education in Transfusion Medicine, Tehran 14665-1157, Iran
Timothy Devos
Laboratory of Molecular Immunology (Rega Institute), Department of Hematology, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University Hospitals Leuven, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Guangdi Li
Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Clinical Epidemiology, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Marc Van Ranst
Laboratory for Clinical and Epidemiological Virology, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Rega Institute for Medical Research, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Jelle Matthijnssens
Laboratory of Viral Metagenomics, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Rega Institute for Medical Research, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Mahmoud Reza Pourkarim
Laboratory for Clinical and Epidemiological Virology, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Rega Institute for Medical Research, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Blood transfusion safety is an essential element of public health. Current blood screening strategies rely on targeted techniques that could miss unknown or unexpected pathogens. Recent studies have demonstrated the presence of a viral community (virobiota/virome) in the blood of healthy individuals. Here, we characterized the blood virome in patients frequently exposed to blood transfusion by using Illumina metagenomic sequencing. The virome of these patients was compared to viruses present in healthy blood donors. A total number of 155 beta-thalassemia, 149 hemodialysis, and 100 healthy blood donors were pooled with five samples per pool. Members of the Anelloviridae and Flaviviridae family were most frequently observed. Interestingly, samples of healthy blood donors harbored traces of potentially pathogenic viruses, including adeno-, rota-, and Merkel cell polyomavirus. Viruses of the Anelloviridae family were most abundant in the blood of hemodialysis patients and displayed a higher anellovirus richness. Pegiviruses (Flaviviridae) were only observed in patient populations. An overall trend of higher eukaryotic read abundance in both patient groups was observed. This might be associated with increased exposure through blood transfusion. Overall, the findings in this study demonstrated the presence of various viruses in the blood of Iranian multiple-transfused patients and healthy blood donors.
