Detection and typing of JC virus in autopsy brains and extraneural organs of AIDS patients and non-immunocompromised individuals

The distribution of JC virus (JCV) variants in the brain, lung, liver, kidney, spleen and lymph nodes collected at autopsy from AIDS patients with (Group A: 10 Ss) and without (Group B: 5 Ss) progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) and from HIV-negative patients (Group C: 5 Ss), was examined by amplifying the JCV large T antigen (LT), the regulatory (R) and the VP1 regions. Among the samples from the PML patients, JCV DNA was detected in all of the demyelinating areas, in 60% of the lesion-free brain tissues, in 60% of the lung tissues and in 40% of the spleen and kidney tissues, whereas all liver and lymph node sections were negative. JCV DNA was also found in two of the five brain specimens, in two of the five kidney specimens, in one of the five lung specimens from the HIV-positive patients without PML and in the brain specimens from two of the five HIV-negative subjects. Nucleotide sequence analysis indicated that all of the R region amplified from extraneural tissues had rearrangements simil...