A Diagnostic Approach to Separate Acute Human Bocavirus 1 Respiratory Tract Infection From Long-lasting Virus Shedding

Human bocavirus 1 (HBoV1) causes mild to life-threatening respiratory tract infections in children but may persist in the airways for months. Currently used polymerase chain reaction may thus lead to false diagnoses and irrelevant codetections. Our aim was to differentiate acute infections from persistent shedding by pretreatment of airway or serum samples with an endonuclease, followed by polymerase chain reaction (ePCR). We show that HBoV1 DNA is protected by a capsid in the acute phase but not in persistent shedding, and we provide proof of concept of a novel test that may be applied in routine diagnosis of acute HBoV1 respiratory tract infection for more accurate results.