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 Children born with
herpes
HHV-6, Human Herpes Virus 6, weaves itself
into DNA of parents and
transferred to babies
Parents expect to pass on their eye or hair
color, etc. to their children through their genes. However,
they don't expect to pass on viruses through those same
genes.
New research shows that some parents
pass on the human herpes virus 6 (HHV-6) to their
children because it is integrated into their chromosomes.
This is the first time a virus has been shown to become
part of the human DNA which passes to subsequent
generations. This unique transference may be occurring in
as many as 1 of every 116 newborns, with the long-term
consequences for a child's development and immune system
are unknown.
At
this point, the researchers know very little about the
implications of this type of infection, but the section
of the chromosome into which the virus appears to
integrate is important to the maintenance of normal
immune function. With further study, they hope to discern
whether this type of infection affects children
differently than children infected after
birth.
HHV-6 causes roseola, an infection that
that is seen nearly universally by the age of three
years. The typical roseola clinical case produces up to a
week of a high fever and may have variable other symptoms
including mild respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms.
With roseola, as the fever breaks, the child may briefly
develop a rash. A congenital infection of HHV-6 - or one
that is present at birth - produces high levels of virus
in the body but they do not know whether it produces any
developmental or immune system problems.
Some congenital infections can cause
serious problems in fetuses, such as the cytomegalovirus
(CMV) where the fetus is at risk of hearing or vision
loss, developmental disabilities and problems with the
lungs, liver and spleen. Some of these problems don't
show up until months or years after birth. HHV-6 virus is
a closely related to CMV, and the congenital infection
rate of CMV is similar to that of congenital HHV-6 –
which is about 1 percent. But this research shows that a
congenital HHV-6 infection differs greatly from a
congenital CMV infection in that it is often integrated
into the chromosomes of the baby rather than passed
through the placenta.
They established that this is the first
time a herpes virus has been recognized to integrate into
the human genome.
In
the study, of 254 children enrolled between July 2003 and
April 2007, 43 had congenital HHV-6 infections based on
cord blood samples. They found that of the infants who
congenital infections, 86 percent of them (37) had had
the virus integrated into their
chromosomes.
Children who had integrated HHV-6 had
higher levels of virus in the body. HHV-6 DNA was found
in the hair of one parent of all children with integrated
virus with available parental samples which were 18
mothers and 11 fathers. This means the children acquired
the integrated infections through their mother's egg or
father's sperm at conception.
Herpes simplex Type 1 and Type 2, the cold
sore and genital herpes viruses respectively are DNA viruses.
Human genes are our DNA. Viruses need the human cell’s DNA to
replicate or reproduce. Does this mean that Human Herpes Virus
6 (HHV-6) that causes infant/childhood roseola infects at the
time of the roseola infection, which is considered an almost
universal infection (most children will express roseola) some
proportion of this population’s egg and/or sperm cell group?
Females are born with a finite number of egg cells that they
can ovulate. Males have the biological apparatus that allows
them to create/produce multiples of millions of sperm cells in
their life time. So the mechanism of HHV-6 infection in
childhood must differ between males and
females.
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