Characterization of Gastrointestinal Human Cytomegalovirus Infection in Biopsy Samples from Urease Positive Patients

Abstract

Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) isa ubiquitous organism thatcan infect multiple organs butrarely causes gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. However, it can be reactivated in the GI tractand lead to gastric cancer. Here, we investigatedCMV infection in patients with gastric complaints.Material and methods:In this study,99 biopsy samples were collected from patientswith GI symptoms and CMV genome was detected by polymerase chain reaction. Sequencing was performed for computational genotyping.Results:We observed that 88.99% of the sampleswere urease positive and 5.99% of the sampleswere CMV positive. Moreover, genotype of the samples belonged to group 4 (gB4). There was a relatively high incidence of CMV infection in patients with GI problems. Conclusions:Although symptomatic CMV-associated diseases of GI tract are rare in immunocompetent individuals, theymight be considered as potential complications of CMV infection.

Keywords

• Human cytomegalovirus
• Gastrointestinal infection
• Gastric biopsy
• Urease positive