PubMed HealthSearch

SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Rotavirus Infections”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Comparison of methods for immunocytochemical detection of rotavirus infections.

Rotavirus infections in intestinal tissues of animals or in tissue culture cells were detected by the immunocytochemical unlabeled soluble enzyme peroxidase antiperoxidase method. Comparison of the immunofluorescence and peroxidase antiperoxidase immunological staining techniques revealed that the two methods are equally sensitive for detection of rotavirus-infected cells. The peroxidase antiperoxidase technique offers the advantages of negligible nonspecific staining reactions, the use of a standard light microscope, the production of permanent slides, and the conservation of immunological reagents. The ability to detect antigens in paraffin-embedded tissues enhances the usefulness of the peroxidase antiperoxidase test for both prospective and retrospective studies.

Animals

[The status and outlook of the laboratory diagnosis of rotavirus infection].

Rotavirus infection is not only the most distributed disease of children but a widely spread cause of their death. Nowadays considerable methodical potential which permits effectively detecting the whole virions, group A, antigens of human rotaviruses, virus-specific RNA in the clinical material is accumulated. There is a tendency to an increase of sensitivity and expressivity of the methods based on the use of immunological principles for detection and calculation of the antigen-antibody complex. Molecular-biological methods of the study are developed, which is important for the theory and practice of this infection control.

Antibodies, Viral

Neonatal rotavirus infections.

Rotavirus (RV) infections in newborns differ from those in older infants; the majority of RV infections that occur in neonates are mild or asymptomatic. Generally, fewer than one-third of RV-infected neonates have diarrhea, although rates have reached 77% in some hospital nursery populations. Cases with severe diarrhea, necrotizing enterocolitis, bowel perforation, and death have been reported, but such cases are very rare. Infection usually occurs during the first week of life and generally invokes a mucosal antibody response without a concomitant serologic antibody response. Neonatal RV infections appear to incite an immune response that affords significant protection against severe RV-associated diarrhea, although not necessarily against a symptomatic RV infection later in life. Strains that cause neonatal infections differ from those that infect older infants; the outer-capsid protein VP4 is highly conserved in "nursery" RV strains, a property that probably plays a key role in their attenuated virulence. Immaturity of proteolytic enzymes in the neonatal gut and presence of secretory anti-RV IgA and trypsin inhibitors in breast milk are other factors that could account for the asymptomatic nature of RV infections in newborns. Natural "nursery" strains of RV are currently being evaluated as vaccine candidates.

Antibodies, Viral

The effect of dexamethasone-induced immunosuppression on the development of faecal antibody and recovery from and resistance to rotavirus infection.

Rotavirus-naive and rotavirus-immune gnotobiotic calves were treated with high doses of dexamethasone (DX) to suppress the immune system. Calves were then infected with a virulent rotavirus inoculum, J-160, to investigate the role of immune responses both in recovery from primary rotavirus infection and in resistance to secondary rotavirus infection. Treatment of calves with DX markedly suppressed in vitro responsiveness of peripheral blood lymphocytes to mitogens within 48 h of the start of DX treatment. Suppression was similar in rotavirus-naive and rotavirus-immune calves. In contrast, the effect of DX treatment on specific antibody responses differed depending on when DX treatment started in relation to rotavirus infection. When DX treatment commenced prior to primary rotavirus infection both systemic and local specific antibody responses were inhibited. These calves, in which mitogen and antibody responses were suppressed, exhibited greater clinical signs than did control calves after infection with virulent rotavirus, but virus excretion was affected in only one of the two calves. When DX treatment was started after primary rotavirus infection but before secondary infection, systemic and local antibody responses to the primary infection and to the challenge infection were not affected. These calves resisted challenge with virulent virus as did DX-untreated rotavirus-immune calves, even though mitogen responses were suppressed. We conclude that in a primary rotavirus infection, virus excretion ceased when both antibody and mitogen responses were suppressed. Resistance to secondary rotavirus infection occurred when mitogen responsiveness was suppressed, but when antibody levels were normal. Thus, no evidence was obtained that fully functional cell-mediated immune mechanisms are essential for resistance to rotavirus infection. Evidence was provided for the ability of parenteral treatment with DX to suppress mucosal as well as systemic antibody responses.

Animals

Complement-fixing antibody response to rotavirus infection.

A human rotavirus complement-fixing (CF) antigen, prepared by purification of large volumes of fluid feces collected from children with winter diarrhea, was used to study the development and persistence of antibody in children with diarrhea and the prevalence of rotavirus antibody in Melbourne. In children with diarrhea, antibody rises were detectable within 4 to 6 weeks of the onset of illness, and the titers usually remained elevated for the next 1 to 2 years. CF antibody did not develop in two children with proven rotavirus infection aged less than 6 months, an age at which poor CF responses to other viruses have also been observed. A study of CF antibody levels in the general community showed that in Melbourne, most children have been infected with human rotavirus by the age of 3 years.

Age Factors

Rotavirus infections in adults in association with acute gastroenteritis.

During an epidemic of acute gastroenteritis in Helsinki, in March--May 1976, 18 out of 40 adult patients showed electron microscopic and/or serologic evidence for rotavirus infection. Rotavirus was most frequently seen in the fecal suspensions from 2 to 6 days after the onset of the symptoms but persisted in one patient for as long as 10 days. An increase in the complement-fixing (CF) serum antibody titers against the related Nebraska calf diarrhea virus (NCDV), or an initially high titer and subsequent significant decrease, was seen in all but one patient with rotavirus-positive feces, and in 6 additional patients. This suggests that using electron microscopy as the only diagnostic procedure a considerable number of rotavirus infections in adults remain undetected. Immune response against autologous or homologous rotavirus was also documented by immunoelectron microscopy. Complement-fixing antibody titers against NCDV decreased significantly from the convalescence values over a half-year observation period, but still remained clearly above the titers of a gastroenteritis-negative control population.

Acute Disease

Rotavirus infections in families. A clinical and virological study.

Among 25 family members of 8 children with acute rotavirus gastroenteritis (8 siblings and 17 adults) gastroenteritis was recorded in 9 (5 siblings and 4 adults), and minor symptoms in 8 (2 siblings and 6 adults). A rotavirus infection was diagnosed in 7 of the family members with gastroenteritis and was probably the cause of the disease in the remaining 2 in this group. Four of the 8 family members with minor symptoms were infected with rotavirus, whereas no infection was detected among the 8 family members without symptoms. Serological findings sugggested that infants and young children underwent a primary infection with rotavirus, whereas older children and adults probably were reinfected. Adults as well as children with rotavirus infection excreted virus and may have served as sources of infection.

Acute Disease

Immunization with baculovirus-expressed recombinant rotavirus proteins VP1, VP4, VP6, and VP7 induces CD8+ T lymphocytes that mediate clearance of chronic rotavirus infection in SCID mice.

Clearance of chronic murine rotavirus infection in SCID mice can be demonstrated by adoptive transfer of immune CD8+ T lymphocytes from histocompatible donor mice immunized with a murine homotypic rotavirus (T. Dharakul, L. Rott, and H.B. Greenberg, J. Virol 64:4375-4382, 1990). The present study focuses on the protein specificity and heterotypic nature of cell-mediated clearance of chronic murine rotavirus infection in SCID mice. Heterotypic cell-mediated clearance was demonstrated in SCID mice infected with EDIM (murine) rotavirus after adoptive transfer of CD8+ T lymphocytes from BALB/c mice that were immunized with a variety of heterologous (nonmurine) rotaviruses including Wa (human, serotype 1), SA11 and RRV (simian, serotype 3), and NCDV and RF (bovine, serotype 6). This finding indicates the serotypic independence of T-cell-mediated rotavirus clearance. To further identify the rotavirus proteins that are capable of generating CD8+ T cells that mediate virus clearance, donor mice were immunized with SF-9 cells infected with a baculovirus recombinant expressing one of the following rotavirus proteins: VP1, VP2, NS53 (from RF), VP4, VP7, NS35 (from RRV), VP6, and NS28 (from SA11). SCID mice stopped shedding rotavirus after receiving CD8+ T cells from mice immunized with VP1, VP4, VP6, and VP7 but not with VP2, NS53, NS35, NS28, or wild-type baculovirus. These results suggest that heterotypic cell-mediated clearance of rotavirus in SCID mice is mediated by three of the major rotavirus structural proteins and by a putative polymerase protein.

Animals

Protection of agammaglobulinemic piglets from porcine rotavirus infection by antibody against simian rotavirus SA-11.

Rotavirus, a double-stranded RNA virus, has been implicated as a diarrhea-provoking agent in a variety of animal species. Several previous reports have shown that immunization with a single serotype may result in increased in vitro neutralization titers against serotypes not represented in the immunogen. This study was undertaken to determine whether antibody from cows immunized against simian rotavirus strain SA-11 (which is alien to pigs) could protect neonatal piglets from infection with a North Carolina isolate of porcine rotavirus. Accordingly, cows were immunized with SA-11 and an immunoglobulin G (IgG)-rich fraction was isolated from their colostrum. An IgG-rich fraction was similarly isolated from colostrum of nonimmunized cows. At equal concentrations, IgG from SA-11-immunized cows had two- to fourfold higher neutralization titers to seven of eight test strains of rotavirus, including SA-11 (serotype 3); human rotavirus serotypes 1, 3, and 4; North Carolina porcine rotavirus (serotype undetermined); Ohio State porcine rotavirus (serotype 5); and bovine rotavirus (serotype 6). The IgG-rich fractions were fed as dietary supplements to agammaglobulinemic piglets infected with the North Carolina porcine rotavirus. IgG from the SA-11-immunized cows was about eightfold more effective in protecting piglets than was IgG from nonimmunized cows.

Agammaglobulinemia

Rotavirus infection in adults. Results of a prospective family study.

To study the epidemiologic and clinical features of rotavirus infections, we enrolled 98 families in a prospective study of diarrhea in households with newborn children. Families were seen at three-month intervals and whenever ill. The mean follow-up period was 16.4 months. Rotavirus infections were documented by electron microscopy of feces, indirect fluorescent-antibody assays in serum or both. The 43 infections identified in adults represented an attack rate of 0.17 per adult per year. Ninety-three per cent of these infections occurred from November through May. Seventeen adults had gastrointestinal symptoms, most often diarrhea (in 14) or abdominal cramps (in 11). Rotavirus infections occurred in 36 of 102 adults whose children had rotavirus infection, as compared with four of 86 without infected children (P less than 0.001). Serum rotavirus antibody did not correlate with a reduced risk of infection or symptomatic disease. Rotavirus is a mild but common infection in parents of young children.

Adult

Serial observations of chronic rotavirus infection in an immunodeficient child.

Chronic rotavirus infection of an infant with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) was studied by virological examinations in association with long-term observation of his symptoms and immune status. During eleven months of hospitalization, the patient was suffering from incurable severe diarrhea with persisting excretion of rotaviruses detected by electron microscopy and the reversed-passive hemagglutination (R-PHA) test and had transient hepatitis symptom despite multiple administrations of human gammaglobulin and high calorie fluids. The detected viruses were morphologically recognized as rotavirus with double capsid structure. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic (PAGE) analysis of their genomic RNAs showed the long electropherotype of group A virus with abnormal migration profiles changing considerably from the early to the late phase of illness: (1) The 11th segment became undetectable; (2) the molecular weight of the 6th segment slightly increased; (3) seven to fourteen extra segments appeared; and (4) PAGE patterns of viral genomic RNAs changed every three or four months. These findings suggest that chronic infection with rotavirus accompanied the generation of extra viral genomic segments and their unusual assortments in an immunodeficient host.

Chronic Disease

Rotavirus infection in horses. Genome profile analysis of a rotavirus isolated from an infected foal.

Electrophoretic analysis in polyacrylamide gel (PAGE) of the equine rotavirus 106/88/LI/EQ, isolated from the diarrhea of an 18 day old foal was compared to the bovine strain NCDV. There was a notable difference in the migration of some segments of the viral RNA. Bands 2 and 3 of the equine rotavirus comigrated while there was a clear separation of segments 7, 8 and 9. Moreover, the migration of segments 1, 4 and 5 revealed a lower molecular weight than the corresponding segments of NCDV.

Animals

[Epidemiology of rotavirus infections in the Federal District, Brazil].

Rotavirus testing was performed on fecal samples of 607 infants and young children aging from 0 to 6 years with acute diarrhoea between May 1986 and April 1990. Samples were analyzed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). Rotaviruses were detected in 123 samples (20.27%); from those, 107 (87.00%) were classified as subgroup II (long profile). Rotaviruses were not detected in the control group of healthy children, but it were present in 7.80% of the children hospitalized for other causes but acute diarrhoea. Most of the children with rotavirus infection ranged from 6 to 24 months of age (73.98%). The mean of positive cases during the rainy months (October to April) was of 9.60% and during the dry period was of 34.48%. The highest values were 53.17 and 73.27% in June and July, the coldest months of the year.

Acute Disease

[Intestinal microflora in young children with rotavirus infection].

A total of 270 children with rotavirus diarrhea were examined. The quantitative and qualitative composition of their intestinal microflora was studied. Most frequently microorganisms of the genus Enterobacter and most seldom, Serratia were isolated. A decrease in the amount of bifidobacteria, normal Escherichia coli and an increase in the amount of lactose-negative Escherichia were noted. In cases of pronounced dysbiosis in young children the clinical course of rotavirus infection is aggravated and the period of rotavirus excretion is prolonged.

Enterobacter

Epizootiology of bovine rotavirus infection.

Published information on rotaviruses as pathogens, the source of virus infection and the method of transmission of infection under normal conditions are reviewed. The antigenic differences between rotavirus isolates from children, calves, pigs, foals and mice are discussed. Bovine rotaviruses isolated in the USA and the UK were shown to be closely related antigenically and the US vaccine strain protected calves from challenge with the UK rotavirus. Nineteen normally reared calves, with 20 or more ZnSO4 units of serum delta globulin, were susceptible to rotavirus inoculation at two days of age. They developed diarrhoea, showed body weight loss but recovered. Three calves with less than 10 ZnSO4 units of serum delta globulin developed diarrhoea and died. In a serological survey of 654 adult cows and calves from three herds, between 2 per cent and 37 per cent of individuals in a group had low rotavirus antibody titres and were probably susceptible to rotavirus infection. These were found in all age groups of animals studied, whether or not the group had suffered a recent rotavirus epizootic. It was not possible to predict whether an epizootic would develop on the basis of a serological survey.

Animals

Epidemiological aspects of rotavirus infection in hospitalized Venezuelan children with gastroenteritis.

The prevalence of rotavirus infection in hospitalized Venezuelan children with gastroenteritis was studied during the period November 1975 to December 1976. Rotaviruses were the pathogens most frequently associated with gastroenteritis, being found in 121 of 293 (41.3%) patients and in only 3 of 66 (4.5%) controls. Other viruses (adenoviruses, enteroviruses, and small icosahedrical viruses) were detected at a lower frequency both in cases and controls. Rotaviruses were detected at a lower frequency both in cases and controls. Rotaviruses were readily detected throughout the year, which may correspond to the absence of seasonal temperature variation in a tropical country such as Venezuela. Children of all age groups examined (0-5 yr) were susceptible to rotavirus infection. The frequency of infection was slightly higher in the age group 13-24 mo, and significantly lower in children younger than 6 mo old. Rotaviruses were readily detected even after 12 days from the onset of illness. These results indicate that rotaviruses may be a major cause of infantile acute gastroenteritis in Venezuela.

Age Factors

Rotavirus infection in Tanzania: a virological, epidemiological and clinical study among young children.

Rotavirus infection in the Dar es Salaam area of Tanzania was studied in 99 hospitalized children with acute diarrhoea and 99 hospitalized non-diarrhoea referents matched for sex and age. Of the diarrhoea cases 43.4% had rotavirus in the stools as opposed to 15.2% of the referents. The high carrier rate among the referents represents a serious risk of nosocomial transmission. More referents than cases had serum IgG antibodies to rotavirus, 52.5% and 35.4%, respectively (P < 0.02), while there was no correlation with serum IgM and IgA or faecal IgA antibodies. The latex agglutination test had a sensitivity comparable to that of electron microscopy (100%) and a specificity of 93.8%. The Slidex test appeared to be superior to the Rotalex test in that it gives very few false-positive reactions. The SDS-PAGE patterns of 11 RNA segments were compatible with the presence of group A strains with considerable heterogeneity among the strains. Symptoms and signs and some environmental data were recorded. None of them was clearly associated with rotavirus infection among the diarrhoea cases. It is concluded that rotavirus is a major cause of acute infectious diarrhoea in Tanzania.

Antibodies, Viral

Nosocomial rotavirus infections in adult renal transplant recipients.

We conducted a 24-month survey of hospital-acquired rotavirus infections in 20 renal transplant recipients who received their graft during 1988. Four cases of nosocomial rotavirus infection were diagnosed (20% of patients), 3-34 days after graft. Two patients presented with severe diarrhoea and two with fever alone. The cases occurred mainly during the winter months and remained sporadic. None of our patients was found to have chronic excretion of rotaviruses. Contacts from paediatric cases can be ruled out. We concluded that rotavirus nosocomial infections were frequent in adult renal transplant recipients and suggest that screening for rotavirus is regularly performed in these immunodeficient patients who are very susceptible to hypovolaemia.

Adult