Detection and sequencing of measles virus from peripheral mononuclear cells from patients with inflammatory bowel disease and autism

It has been reported that measles virus may be present in the intestine of patients with Crohn's disease. Additionally, a new syndrome has been report ed in children with autism who exhibited developmental regression and gastr ointestinal symptoms (autistic enterocolitis), in some cases soon after MMR vaccine. It is not known whether the virus, if confirmed to be present in these patients, derives from either wild strains or vaccine strains. In ord er to characterize the strains that may be present, we have carried out the detection of measles genomic RNA in peripheral mononuclear cells (PBMC) in eight patients with Crohn's disease, three patients with ulcerative coliti s, and nine children with autistic enterocolitis. As controls, we examined healthy children and patients with SSPE, SLE, HIV-1 (a total of eight cases ). RNA was purified from PBMC by Ficoll-paque, followed by reverse transcri ption using AMV; cDNAs were subjected to nested PCR for detection of specif ic regions of the hemagglutinin (H) and fusion (F) gene regions. Positive s amples were sequenced directly, in nucleotides 8393-8676 (H region) or 5325 -5465 (from noncoding F to coding F region). One of eight patients with Cro hn disease, one of three patients with ulcerative colitis, and three of nin e children with autism, were positive. Controls were all negative. The sequ ences obtained from the patients with Crohn's disease shared the characteri stics with wild-strain virus. The sequences obtained from the patients with ulcerative colitis and children with autism were consistent with being vac cine strains. The results were concordant with the exposure history of the patients. Persistence of measles virus was confirmed in PBMC in some patien ts with chronic intestinal inflammation.