The virome of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from patients with fever of unknown origin

Abstract

Background: Viral metagenomics, a high-throughput sequencing combined with virus sequence-independent amplification by random PCR, allows for unbiased detection of virtually any viruses present in samples. Materials & methods: In order to investigate the virome of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from patients with fever of unknown origin, 58 samples collected from diseased patients were characterized and compared. Results: Some representatives of Anelloviridae were identified, we found the torque teno virus (TTV) accounts for the majority of virus communities and were more prevalent in the specimens of febrile patients. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that these anellovirus isolates were close to the previous TTV available in GenBank®. Conclusion: All these data indicate that the human anellovirus species TTV may associated with fever of unknown origin.