The prevalence of human herpesvirus 6 in human sensory ganglia and its co-occurrence with alpha-herpesviruses.

Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) persists in the central nervous system, but its prevalence in the peripheral nervous system, a preferred latency site for herpesviruses, has not been studied. Using nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the authors determined the distribution of HHV-6 in human sensory ganglia. HHV-6 was present in 30% of trigeminal, 40% of geniculate, 25% of vestibular, and 55% of dorsal root ganglia. It co-occurred with alpha-herpesviruses (herpes simplex virus type 1 or varicella-zoster virus) in 91% of the ganglia. As HHV-6 positivity did not depend on the presence of inflammatory cells, known to harbor the virus, HHV-6 probably resides in the ganglia themselves.