Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 21, 2020; 26(15): 1691-1707
Published online Apr 21, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i15.1691
Torque teno virus in liver diseases: On the way towards unity of view
Vasiliy I Reshetnyak, Igor V Maev, Alexandr I Burmistrov, Igor A Chekmazov, Tatiana I Karlovich
Vasiliy I Reshetnyak, Igor V Maev, Alexandr I Burmistrov, Department of Propaedeutic of Internal Diseases and Gastroenterology, A.I. Yevdokimov Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry, Moscow 127473, Russia
Igor A Chekmazov, Tatiana I Karlovich, Central Clinical Hospital with Polyclinic, Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, Moscow 121359, Russia
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to this paper with conception and design of the study, literature review and analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing, and final approval of the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Vasiliy I Reshetnyak, DSc, MD, PhD, Full Professor, Department of Propaedeutic of Internal Diseases and Gastroenterology, A.I. Yevdokimov Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry, 20, Bldg. 1, Delegatskaya Street, Moscow 127473, Russia. vasiliy.reshetnyak@yandex.ru
Received: December 26, 2019
Peer-review started: December 26, 2019
First decision: February 18, 2020
Revised: March 23, 2020
Accepted: March 27, 2020
Article in press: March 27, 2020
Published online: April 21, 2020
Processing time: 116 Days and 22.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: The review is dedicated to torque teno virus (TTV) discovered in the late 20th century. It presents data on the morphofunctional properties of the virus, its immunobiology, prevalence, transmission routes, possible replication sites, methods for diagnosis and co-infection in liver diseases. The authors tried to analyze the information accumulated in the literature on these issues and to show the evolution of views on the importance of the virus to humans: From its hepatotropism to virome and a marker for the human immune status. Along with this, the review gives data suggesting that there are biochemical and histological changes in the liver and bile duct epithelium during TTV monoinfection. On the one hand, this information points to the possible replication of the virus in the cells of the liver and the epithelium of the bile ducts. On the other hand, the high prevalence of TTV in the population indicates its persistence in the body as a virome and a non-pathogenic virus. Moreover, the fortunately rare identification of the damaging effect of the virus on the cells of the liver and the epithelium of the bile ducts may be indirect evidence of its conditionally pathogenic properties.