ArticleViruses2022
Epstein-Barr Virus and Human Herpesvirus-6 Reactivation in Acute COVID-19 Patients.
Article in Viruses, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic review with meta-analysis of active herpesvirus infections in patients with COVID-19: Old players on the new field.International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases · 2023Pooled it
- Review
- Lower airway microbiota compositions and diversity among ventilator-associated pneumonia patients across COVID-19 epidemic phases: a retrospective study.Microbiology spectrum · 2025Article
- Molecular epidemiology and clinical patterns of Epstein-Barr virus infection in Southwestern Saudi Arabia: a 2020-2023 retrospective study.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Clinical Features and Outcomes of Patients with Full Spectrum of COVID-19 Severity and Concomitant Herpesvirus Reactivation.Microorganisms · 2025Article
- A unifying model for multiple sclerosis.Clinical and experimental medicine · 2025Review
- Novel biomarkers of mitochondrial dysfunction in Long COVID patients.GeroScience · 2025Article
- Herpesvirus Antibody Response and Occurrence of Symptoms in Acute and Post-Acute COVID-19 Disease.Viruses · 2024Article
- Article
- Herpesviridae and Atypical Bacteria Co-Detections in Lower Respiratory Tract Samples of SARS-CoV-2-Positive Patients Admitted to an Intensive Care Unit.Microorganisms · 2024Article
- Awakening the sleeping giant: Epstein-Barr virus reactivation by biological agents.Pathogens and disease · 2024Review
- Epstein-Barr virus-acquired immunodeficiency in myalgic encephalomyelitis-Is it present in long COVID?Journal of translational medicine · 2023Review
- SARS-CoV-2 Induced Herpes Virus Reactivations and Related Implications in Oncohematology: When Lymphocytopenia Sets in and Immunosurveillance Drops Out.Microorganisms · 2023Article
- Shared Pathogenicity Features and Sequences between EBV, SARS-CoV-2, and HLA Class I Molecule-binding Motifs with a Potential Role in Autoimmunity.Clinical reviews in allergy & immunology · 2023Review
- The viral origin of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.PLoS pathogens · 2023Article
- Article
- Drug Reaction with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms (DRESS): Focus on the Pathophysiological and Diagnostic Role of Viruses.Microorganisms · 2023Review
- Review
- Seroprevalence of Epstein-Barr virus infection in children during the COVID-19 pandemic in Zhejiang, China.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2023Article
- ME/CFS and Long COVID share similar symptoms and biological abnormalities: road map to the literature.Frontiers in medicine · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Beyond their pulmonary disease, many COVID-19 patients experience a complex constellation of characteristics, including hyperinflammatory responses, autoimmune disorders, and coagulopathies. However, the pathogenesis of these aspects of COVID-19 is obscure. More than 90% of people are latently infected with the lymphotropic herpesviruses Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) and/or Human Herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6). Some of the inflammatory features of COVID-19 resemble clinical syndromes seen during EBV and HHV-6 infection, and these latent viruses can be reactivated by inflammatory mediators. We hypothesized that EBV and HHV-6 reactivation might be a common feature of early COVID-19, particularly in patients with more inflammation. We tested for EBV and HHV-6 reactivation in 67 patients acutely hospitalized with COVID-19 using previously validated quantitative PCR assays on the plasma. In our cohort, we found that 15/67 (22.4%) patients had detectable EBV and 3/67 (4.5%) had detectable HHV-6. This frequency of activation is somewhat more than the frequency reported for some healthy cohorts, such as blood donors and other healthy control cohorts. There was no association between EBV or HHV-6 and markers indicative of more inflammatory disease. We conclude that EBV and HHV-6 activation at about day 7 of hospitalization occurred in a modest fraction of our cohort of COVID-19 patients and was not associated with high levels of inflammation. In the modest fraction of patients, EBV and HHV-6 reactivation could contribute to some features of acute disease and pre-disposition to post-acute sequelae in a subset of patients.
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