Epstein-Barr Virus and Human Herpesvirus-6 Reactivation in Acute COVID-19 Patients

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.

Automated summary

In addition to pulmonary disease, COVID-19 patients also exhibit other characteristics such as hyperinflammatory responses, autoimmune disorders, and coagulopathies. This study found that a subset of COVID-19 patients experienced reactivation of the latent viruses EBV and HHV-6, which may contribute to certain features of the disease.