Broad-range PCR-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry for detection and typing of adenovirus and other opportunistic viruses in stem cell transplant patients.

Hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients are highly susceptible to viral infections. Follow-up after transplantation includes weekly screening using single, virus-specific real-time PCR tests, mainly for viruses in the families Herpesviridae and Adenoviridae that contribute to a high morbidity, especially in pediatric populations. The Abbott PLEX-ID platform combines broad-range PCR with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry to enable the simultaneous detection of multiple pathogens in a single assay. The Viral IC Spectrum assay detects human adenoviruses, viruses from the family Herpesviridae (herpes simplex virus 1 [HSV-1], HSV-2, cytomegalovirus [CMV], Epstein-Barr virus [EBV], varicella-zoster virus [VZV], and human herpesvirus 8 [HHV-8]), human enterovirus, polyomaviruses (BK and JC), and parvovirus B19. We evaluated the performance of the Viral IC Spectrum assay with samples from 16 adult and 36 pediatric stem cell transplant patients. The sensitivity of the Viral IC Spectrum assay compared to real-time PCR quantification using the adenovirus Rgene kit for the detection of adenovirus was 96.7% from plasma samples (n = 92) and 78% from stool samples (n = 100). No adenovirus was detected in samples from noninfected patients (n = 30). PLEX-ID species identification was perfectly concordant with species-specific real-time PCR assays. In plasma and stool samples, the level of amplified products measured by PLEX-ID and the quantity in copies/ml (r = 0.82 and 0.78, respectively) were correlated up to 6 log(10) copies/ml. In 67.4% of adenovirus-positive plasma samples, at least one other viral infection was detected; these included BK virus (n = 41), CMV (n = 30), EBV (n = 26), JC virus (n = 9), and HSV-1 (n = 6). The results of this study suggest that the Viral IC Spectrum assay performed on the PLEX-ID platform is reliable for adenovirus infection diagnosis in immunocompromised patients.