Abstract：
Recently, hepatitis E virus (HEV, Paslahepevirus balayani) particles were detected for the first time in the ejaculate of two chronically infected patients. Since then, we have been able to detect HEV in ejaculate in five further patients, and thus in a total of seven out of nine (78%) chronically infected men (age 36-67 years, median 56 years). In five patients, the HEV RNA concentration was more than 100-fold higher compared to the serum, while in two patients, the viral load was more than 10-fold lower. However, it has remained unclear whether viral particles shed in the ejaculate were infectious, as a previous cell culture model had failed to demonstrate the infectivity. In the current study, we employed an optimized HEV cell culture system based on overconfluent PLC/PRF/5 cells to investigate the infectivity of HEV particles from ejaculate and other body fluids. With this approach, we were able to show for the first time that HEV particles in the ejaculate from several patients were infectious. HEV replicated to high viral loads of 1e9 HEV RNA copies per ml. This indicates that HEV-positive ejaculate could bear a risk of infection for sexual partners.
摘要：
最近,戊型肝炎病毒（HEV，在两名慢性感染患者的射精中首次检测到Paslahepevirusbalayani）颗粒。从那以后,我们已经能够在另外五名患者的射精中检测到HEV，因此，在9名慢性感染男性中，总共有7名(78%)(年龄36-67岁，中位数56岁)。在五名患者中，HEVRNA浓度比血清高100倍以上，而在两名患者中，病毒载量降低了10倍以上.然而,目前尚不清楚射精中脱落的病毒颗粒是否具有传染性，因为以前的细胞培养模型未能证明其传染性。在目前的研究中,我们采用基于超汇合PLC/PRF/5细胞的优化HEV细胞培养系统来研究射精和其他体液中HEV颗粒的感染性。通过这种方法，我们首次发现几名患者射精中的HEV颗粒具有传染性。HEV复制至每毫升1e9HEVRNA拷贝的高病毒载量。这表明HEV阳性射精可能会给性伴侣带来感染风险。
