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Virus-infected peripheral blood plasmablasts in a patient with severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome

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Abstract

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is a tick-borne viral hemorrhagic disease with a high fatality rate. It is caused by the SFTS virus and is endemic in East Asian countries such as China, South Korea, and Japan. Previous studies have shown that plasmablasts appear transiently in peripheral blood during the acute phase of SFTS, but do not specify the characteristics of these plasmablasts. In this report, we describe the features of peripheral blood plasmablasts in a patient with SFTS. Immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence staining detected a small number of atypical lymphocytes expressing the SFTS virus antigen among peripheral leukocytes in a blood sample. The phenotype of the virus-infected cells was CD27+, CD38+, MUM1+, and CD138+, which is consistent with that of plasmablasts. This novel study demonstrates that plasmablasts in the peripheral blood of patients with SFTS are targets of the SFTS virus.

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Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, AMED (Grant nos. JP19fk0108104, JP19fk0108081, and JP19fm0208002 to TS.).

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Author notes

  1. Toru Takahashi and Kaori Sano contributed equally to this study.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hematology, Yamaguchi Prefectural Grand Medical Center, 10077 Osaki, Hofu, Yamaguchi, 747-8511, Japan

    Toru Takahashi, Takuro Matsumura, Kohei Sakai & Takayuki Tominaga

  2. Department of Pathology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, 1-23-1 Toyama, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 162-8640, Japan

    Kaori Sano, Tadaki Suzuki, Yuko Sato, Harutaka Katano & Hideki Hasegawa

Authors
  1. Toru Takahashi
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  2. Kaori Sano
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  3. Tadaki Suzuki
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  4. Takuro Matsumura
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  5. Kohei Sakai
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  6. Takayuki Tominaga
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  7. Yuko Sato
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  8. Harutaka Katano
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  9. Hideki Hasegawa
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Contributions

TT, KS, and TS designed the research and wrote the manuscript. TT, TM, KS, and TT treated the patient and collected the sample and all clinical data. KS, TS, YS, HK, and HH performed the immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence staining.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Toru Takahashi.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Takahashi, T., Sano, K., Suzuki, T. et al. Virus-infected peripheral blood plasmablasts in a patient with severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome. Int J Hematol 113, 436–440 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12185-020-03040-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12185-020-03040-3

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