The following is a summary of “Viral genomic variation and the severity of genital HSV-2 infection as quantified by shedding rate: a viral genome-wide association study,” published in the May 2024 issue of Infectious Disease by Casto et al.
Genital herpes caused by HSV-2 shows variable severity, with some having frequent genital lesions and others showing no symptoms. The viral shedding rate is a crucial indicator of this clinical severity.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to investigate whether variations in the herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) genome are linked to differences in shedding rate.
They involved 145 individuals, all of whom had the severity of the genital herpes assessed by measuring the HSV genital shedding rate. An HSV-2 sample from each participant was obtained to identify biallelic variants within genomes.
The result showed no correlation between shedding rate and measures of genome-wide variation in HSV-2. The minor alleles of three distinct unlinked variants were found to be significantly related with a higher shedding rate (P<8.4×10-5) by a viral genome-wide association study (vGWAS), A74534G was a synonymous variant in UL36 (large tegument protein), T119283C was an intergenic variant, and C44973T (A512T) is a non-synonymous variant in UL22 (glycoprotein H). Furthermore, a relationship was observed between the total count of minor alleles for the significant variants and the shedding rate (P=6.6×10-7).
Investigators concluded that the results support growing evidence linking viral genetic variation in HSV to clinically meaningful infection phenotypes.
Source: academic.oup.com/jid/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/infdis/jiae283/7683852
