Use of the polymerase chain reaction with a murine model of picornavirus-induced myocarditis

Enteroviruses are common pathogens responsible for a wide spectrum of systemic infections. Conventional diagnosis of these infections relies on the isolation of viruses in cell culture and their identification by seroneutralization with polyclonal or monoclonal antibodies. Among enteroviruses, coxsackieviruses B have been involved as causative agents for viral myocarditis. Most of the time, in the case of cardiac pathologies, viral isolation is negative. Molecular biology techniques appear to be an alternative to conventional diagnosis and could supply evidence for the direct implication of enteroviruses in these severe pathologies. In this paper, we describe a murine experimental model of infection with the presumed highly cardiopathogenic coxsackie-virus B type 3. A kinetics of infection was observed for a period of 31 days, and the classical virological markers (viral isolation from feces and heart biopsies, seroconversion) were monitored and compared by means of molecular techniques (molecular hybridization, polymerase chain reaction [PCR]). In this 31-day period, the detection of coxsackievirus B type 3 RNA in the heart was possible only by using two successive seminested PCRs. After 9 to 11 days of active viral replication, when all other virological markers were negative, positive PCR signals were obtained, which supports the hypothesis of a shift to persistent enteroviral infection.