High-resolution profiling of human cytomegalovirus cell-free DNA in human plasma highlights its exceptionally fragmented nature.

ABSTRACT: Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections comprise a leading cause of newborn impairments worldwide and are pervasive concerns among the immunocompromised. Quantification of CMV viral loads is increasingly used to guide definitions of CMV disease but standardization of CMV quantitation remains problematic, mostly due to differences in qPCR amplicon sizes between clinical laboratories. Here, we used plasma cfDNA sequencing data from 2,208 samples sent for non-invasive prenatal aneuploidy screening to detect CMV and precisely measure the length of CMV fragments in human plasma. CMV reads were identified in 120 (5.4%) samples. Median cfDNA fragment size derived from CMV was significantly shorter than cfDNA derived from human chromosomes (103 vs 172?bp, p?

SUBMITTER: Peddu V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7048871 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature