Published online Apr 26, 2014. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v6.i4.183
Revised: January 16, 2014
Accepted: February 18, 2014
Published online: April 26, 2014
Processing time: 195 Days and 14.7 Hours
Core tip: Human parvovirus B19 (B19V) has recently been shown to be an emerging pathogen for inflammatory cardiomyopathy (iCMP). We showed that B19V replication intermediates could be detected in acute and ongoing myocarditis. B19V-genotypes 1 and 2 were predominant although B19V-genotype 2 was more prevalent in iCMP. Further analyses revealed that B19V-coinfection with other cardiotropic viruses does occur, most frequently with human herpes virus 6 (HHV6). In vitro experiments showed that the HHV6 U94-transactivator element could transactivate the B19V-P6-promoter. We suggest that long-term persistence of B19V DNA in the human heart occurs and that active/reactivated B19V-replication can be associated with iCMP in a viral load and genotype-dependent manner.