No Evidence Known Viruses Play a Role in the Pathogenesis of Onchocerciasis-Associated Epilepsy. An Explorative Metagenomic Case-Control Study
Michael Roach,
Adrian Cantu,
Melissa Krizia Vieri,
Matthew Cotten,
Paul Kellam,
My Phan,
Lia van der Hoek,
Michel Mandro,
Floribert Tepage,
Germain Mambandu,
Gisele Musinya,
Anne Laudisoit,
Robert Colebunders,
Robert Edwards,
John L. Mokili
Affiliations
Michael Roach
College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia
Adrian Cantu
Computational Sciences Research Center, Biology Department, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA
Melissa Krizia Vieri
Global Health Institute, University of Antwerp, 2160 Antwerp, Belgium
Matthew Cotten
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton CB10 1RQ, UK
Paul Kellam
MRC/UVRI and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Entebbe, Uganda
My Phan
MRC/UVRI and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Entebbe, Uganda
Lia van der Hoek
Laboratory of Experimental Virology, Department of Medical Microbiology and Infection Prevention, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, 1012 WX Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Michel Mandro
Provincial Health Division Ituri, Ministry of Health, Ituri, Congo
Floribert Tepage
Provincial Health Division Bas Uélé, Ministry of Health, Bas Uélé, Congo
Germain Mambandu
Provincial Health Division Tshopo, Ministry of Health, Tshopo, Congo
Gisele Musinya
Médecins Sans Frontières, Bunia, Congo
Anne Laudisoit
Ecohealth Alliance, New York, NY 10018, USA
Robert Colebunders
Global Health Institute, University of Antwerp, 2160 Antwerp, Belgium
Robert Edwards
College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia
John L. Mokili
Viral Information Institute, Biology Department, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA
Despite the increasing epidemiological evidence that the Onchocerca volvulus parasite is strongly associated with epilepsy in children, hence the name onchocerciasis-associated epilepsy (OAE), the pathophysiological mechanism of OAE remains to be elucidated. In June 2014, children with unprovoked convulsive epilepsy and healthy controls were enrolled in a case control study in Titule, Bas-Uélé Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to identify risk factors for epilepsy. Using a subset of samples collected from individuals enrolled in this study (16 persons with OAE and 9 controls) plasma, buffy coat, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were subjected to random-primed next-generation sequencing. The resulting sequences were analyzed using sensitive computational methods to identify viral DNA and RNA sequences. Anneloviridae, Flaviviridae, Hepadnaviridae (Hepatitis B virus), Herpesviridae, Papillomaviridae, Polyomaviridae (Human polyomavirus), and Virgaviridae were identified in cases and in controls. Not unexpectedly, a variety of bacteriophages were also detected in all cases and controls. However, none of the identified viral sequences were found enriched in OAE cases, which was our criteria for agents that might play a role in the etiology or pathogenesis of OAE.
