2019/09/23 by Andrea Tagliapietra, John Charles Rotondo, Ilaria Bononi +7 · 1 citation
Medicine · Engineering · #Polyomavirus and related diseases #Full-Duplex Wireless Communications #Antenna Design and Analysis
paper · pdf · doi:10.1002/jcp.29213
openalex publication_date 2019/09/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Abstract Droplet‐digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) technique was set up to detect/quantify Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) DNA in clinical specimens, including chorionic villi and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from spontaneous abortion (SA)‐affected females. This ddPCR assay showed high accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity in detecting MCPyV DNA cloned in a recombinant plasmid vector, the control. ddPCR was extended to MCPyV DNA to investigate/quantify its sequences in clinical samples. Overall, 400 samples were analyzed, that is, 100 chorionic villi and 100 PBMCs, from SA females ( n = 100), the cases, and 100 chorionic villi and 100 PBMCs from females who underwent voluntary pregnancy interruption (VI, n = 100), the control. MCPyV DNA was detected in 4/100 (4%) and 5/100 (5%) of SA and VI chorionic villi, respectively. The mean viral DNA load was 1.99 ( ± 0.94 standard mean deviation [ SD ]) copy/10 4 cells in SA and 3.02 ( ± 1.86 [ SD ]) copy/10 4 cells in VI. In PBMCs, MCPyV DNA was revealed in 9/100 (9%) and 14/100 (14%) of SA and VI, with a mean of 2.09 ( ± 1.17 [ SD ]) copy/10 4 cells and 4.09 ( ± 4.26 [ SD ]) copy/10 4 cells in SA and VI, respectively. MCPyV gene expression analysis by quantitative PCR for the large T antigen (LT) and viral capsid protein 1 (VP1) showed their mRNAs in 2/4 (50%) SA‐ and 2/5 (40%) VI‐MCPyV‐positive samples. MCPyV DNA was detected/quantified using the ddPCR technique, in chorionic villi and PBMCs from SA and VI. In our experimental conditions, ddPCR provided a powerful tool to detect/quantify MCPyV DNA sequences in clinical samples.