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Perelman School of Medicine team identifies previously unknown viral family that appears to be the second-most common DNA virus in human lung and mouth specimens. The new virus family has been given the name Redondoviridae—from the Spanish word “redondo”, which means round.
The team’s studies found elevated levels of redondovirus DNA in lung specimens from critically ill patients in intensive care units, and also in mouth samples from patients with untreated gum disease. Viral levels in the gum disease patients declined after they received treatment for their periodontitis. Research leads Frederic D. Bushman, PhD, chair of the department of microbiology, and Ronald G. Collman, MD, a professor of pulmonary, allergy and critical care, and colleagues report on their discoveries in Cell Host Microbe.
A large proportion of redondovirus-positive samples were from studies that had included patients with periodontal disease, and the team found that redondovirus DNA levels were higher in individuals with gum disease prior to treatment, and then fell after treatment. “Thus, we conclude that redondoviruses are associated with periodontitis in multiple studies and that levels are reduced with effective treatment,” they wrote. “The role of redondoviruses in periodontitis warrants further study.” Interestingly, direct qPCR analysis of lung samples from 60 healthy adults and 69 critically ill individuals indicated that although redondoviruses were present in healthy people, viral levels were also elevated in the critically ill patients.
“Here, we introduce Redondoviridae, a family of small, circular DNA viruses discovered in metagenomic sequence data, which is found selectively in human lung and oro-pharyngeal samples,” the scientists commented. “Of the DNA viruses we surveyed in 20 human virome datasets, redondoviruses were the second most abundant, exceeded only by anelloviruses.
The findings were published in May 19 in the journal Cell Host Microbe:
