Invisible bleeding from clean-shave haircuts: detection with blood specific RNA markers.

BACKGROUND: 'Haircut-associated bleeding' is a newly recognized entity that affects at least a quarter of African men who wear shiny clean-shave ('chiskop') haircuts. AIM: This pilot study aimed to elucidate whether invisible haircut-associated bleeding was detectable using blood specific RNA markers (16 participants, 5 with unknown HIV status) and whether surface virus could be detected using PCR from scalp swabs (of 11 known HIV-positive participants). METHODS: Haircuts were performed professionally and scalps examined by a dermatologist to exclude injury. Serum samples for viral loads were also collected at the same time. RESULTS: In all, 6/16 (37%) samples tested positive (>100 relative fluorescent units) for hemoglobin beta and albumin, confirming evidence of blood; of these, only 1/11 was HIV-positive but had an undetectable serum viral load. No surface HIV was detected from any scalp samples. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms the entity of haircut-associated bleeding but goes further to show for the first time that invisible bleeding from clean-shave haircuts is also common. Both a high serum viral load and evidence of bleeding should ideally be present prior to surface HIV detection. Future investigations for potential HIV (and hepatitis B) transmission through clean-shave haircuts are warranted but should not delay public education for disease prevention.

Vacuum extraction and herpes simplex virus infection.

OBJECTIVE: To search for an association between delivery by vacuum extraction and an increased neonatal risk for herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection. METHODS: In a cross-sectional, descriptive, controlled study, the study (vacuum extraction) and control (spontaneous delivery) groups each included 50 consecutive women with no history of HSV infection. Cultures for HSV were obtained from the genital tracts of all parturient women and the scalps of their newborns. RESULTS: Following operative vaginal delivery, two newborns (4%) had scalp vesicles and cultures were positive for HSV for both mothers and newborns; two newborns (4%) had scalp vesicles and cultures were negative for HSV; and two newborns (4%) without scalp vesicles had cultures positive for HSV. Following spontaneous delivery, cultures were positive for HSV for four women and their newborns (8%). CONCLUSION: Herpes simplex virus isolated from the scalps of newborns may often result from colonization rather than infection.

Effects of gamma irradiation on the transduction of dividing and nondividing cells in brain and muscle of rats by adeno-associated virus vectors.

Vectors based on adeno-associated virus (AAV) are under investigation for use in gene therapy applications. Critical aspects of AAV vector biology remain undefined, in particular the intracellular events and activities mediating transduction and determining host cell permissiveness for transduction. Using cultured primary human fibroblasts, we previously showed that AAV vectors preferentially, but not exclusively, transduce cells in the S phase of the cell cycle, and that transduction can be markedly enhanced by pretreatment of target cells with physical and chemical agents that perturb DNA metabolism. In this study, we tested whether similar improvements in AAV vector performance might be achievable in vivo. The adult rat brain and overlying scalp muscle were selected for vector inoculation because of the presence of well-defined populations of dividing, quiescent, and post-mitotic cells, and gamma irradiation was chosen as a reproducible means of inducing DNA repair in these cells. We find that gamma irradiation markedly enhances the transduction of dividing cell populations in the pia-arachnoid and choroid epithelium within the central nervous system, and of mature nondividing muscle cells in the scalp, whereas gamma irradiation did not increase the basal transduction level of post-mitotic neurons in the hippocampus. These data confirm that replicative cellular DNA synthesis is not required for transduction by AAV vectors and show that the mitotic state of target cells is not necessarily predictive of responsiveness to transduction-enhancing treatments. Most importantly, these data demonstrate that target cells can be manipulated in vivo to render them more permissive for AAV vector transduction.

Detection of human papillomavirus DNA in plucked hairs from renal transplant recipients and healthy volunteers.

We have previously detected a group of human papillomaviruses originally found in skin lesions of epidermodysplasia verruciformis (EV) patients in skin cancers from renal transplant recipients and from non-immunosuppressed patients. The reservoir of EV-HPVs is still unknown. In the current study we investigated whether EV-HPV DNA can be detected in plucked hairs from renal transplant recipients and healthy volunteers. Hairs were plucked from eyebrows, scalp, arms, and/or legs and DNA was subsequently isolated. To detect EV-HPV, we used nested PCR with degenerate primers located in the HPV L1 open reading frame. HPV DNA was detected in hairs from one or more sites in all 26 renal transplant recipients tested. Forty-five of 49 samples (92%) from these 26 patients were positive. The HPV type was successfully determined by sequencing in 38 samples, and all types belonged to the EV-HPVs. In ten of 22 healthy volunteers (45%), EV-HPV DNA was also detected in hairs from one or more sites. Twenty of 38 samples (53%) were positive, of which 17 samples were typed as EV-HPV types. These findings indicate that EV-HPV is subclinically present in the skin of the general population. Immunosuppression may lead to activation of the virus, explaining the finding that the apparent prevalence of EV-HPV in plucked hairs from renal transplant patients is higher than in those from the volunteers. If a dose-response situation exists for the carcinogenic potential of HPV infection, this finding may be relevant to the increased risk of skin cancer in this group of patients.

Detection and sequences of human papillomavirus DNA in nongenital seborrhoeic keratosis of immunopotent individuals.

BACKGROUND: The etiology of seborrhoeic keratosis (SK) is unknown. Its clinical and histopathological similarities to verrucae vulgaris and condyloma acuminatum prompted us to examine whether human papillomavirus (HPV) is present in SK lesions. In the present study, HPVs were frequently detected from genital lesions or hair follicle in immunocompromised host. OBJECTIVE: We analyzed 104 nongenital SK specimens diagnosed by clinical and histopathological examinations for HPV DNA in immunopotent individuals. METHOD: We analyzed SK specimens for HPV DNA using in situ hybridization (ISH), polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Southern blot hybridization, and sequencing of viral DNA of PCR-amplified fragments. And we also examined virion, which is the capsid protein of HPV in ISH-positive specimens by immunochemical examination. We identified eight mucosal and two cutaneous type HPVs. RESULT: ISH revealed that 30 of 104 (28.8%) SK samples contained HPV DNA. All ISH-positive specimens were demonstrated virion in the nuclei of the epidermal keratinocytes. PCR analysis showed that 87 (83.7%) samples contained HPV-18, 81 (77.9%) HPV-6, and 73 (70.2%) contained both HPV-18 and -6. The incidence of HPV-1 (7.7%) and HPV-2 (14.4%) was relatively low. All 20 normal controls were negative for HPV DNA by ISH but seven were positive by PCR sequencing. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that HPV, possibly coinfection with HPV-6 and -18 and unknown type(s) of HPV, plays an important role in the pathogenesis of SK.

Herpes simplex virus infection after vacuum-assisted vaginally delivered infants of asymptomatic mothers.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether vacuum extraction technique is associated with an increased risk of herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection in infants born to asymptomatic mothers. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We reviewed the charts of all infants born at the Edith Wolfson Medical Center and admitted to the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit from January 1999 to June 2002 diagnosed with HSV infection. RESULTS: During the study period, 6953 infants were delivered at our institution and 11 infants had HSV infection. The prevalence of neonatal HSV infection was 1.6 per 1000 live births. In 699 infants, vacuum extraction was used for delivery. Five out of the 11 infants delivered vaginally by vacuum extraction developed HSV infection at the site of the vacuum extractor application. They were born to mothers who were asymptomatic at delivery and had no history of HSV genital infection. HSV type 2 was isolated from the vesicular fluid in all infected infants delivered by vacuum extraction, and none had central nervous system involvement. The prevalence of neonatal HSV infection in vacuum-assisted births was seven per 1000 live births as compared to 0.95 in 1000 in infants delivered vaginally or by cesarean section (p<0.0001). The relative risk of HSV infection in infants born in vacuum-assisted births was 7.45 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.99 to 27.42, p=0.001). All patients were treated with intravenous acyclovir and no recurrences of HSV infection have been noticed at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Laceration of the fetal scalp by vacuum extraction technique may enhance the acquisition and the early appearance of cutaneous infection in infants exposed to HSV shedding in the genital tract of asymptomatic mothers, as the virus gains access through the lacerated scalp.

Absence of Epstein-Barr virus, human papillomavirus, and simian virus 40 in patients of central european origin with lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma of the skin.

The authors report 10 cases of lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma (LELC) of the skin and the results of a molecular biological study for HPV, EBV, and SV40 in lesional tissues. All patients originated from Central Europe. There were seven men and three women, ranging in age from 57 to 86 years. Locations included the face (n = 4), scalp (n = 2), penis (n = 2), and retroauricular area (n = 1); location was unknown for one subject. All but two patients presented with a tumor confined to the skin; in both patients with the penile carcinoma, the tumors had metastasized to an inguinal lymph node. Six patients with available follow-up included four individuals with no evidence of tumor metastasis or recurrences at 2, 3, 4, and 5 years, one patient who died with metastatic disease 7 years after diagnosis, and one patient who died of an unrelated course. Microscopically, all cases showed distinctive features of LELC characterized by variably sized and shaped nodules or syncytial sheets of epithelial cells that contained vesicular chromatic and prominent nucleoli and that were permeated and surrounded by small, well-differentiated lymphocytes and plasma cells. Because all 10 cases studied proved negative for EBV, HPV, and SV40, these viruses seem to play no causal role in LELC of the skin in patients from Central Europe.