{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,24]],"date-time":"2026-09-24T06:04:26Z","timestamp":1790229866578,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":24,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,24]],"date-time":"2026-09-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790208000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Clinical Trials from the Affiliated Drum Tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University","award":["2023-LCYJ-PY-05"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023-LCYJ-PY-05"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Microbiol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Extracellular vesicle-enriched plasma particle fractions may contain viral and host RNA species that reflect infection-associated changes. However, whether HCMV-encoded miRNAs detected in circulating particle fractions are associated with HCMV DNAemia remains incompletely understood. This study analyzed selected HCMV-encoded miRNAs in an ExoQuick-derived EV-enriched plasma precipitate from patients with HCMV DNAemia and DNA-low, IgG-positive controls.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Plasma samples were collected from 41 patients with HCMV DNAemia, defined as HCMV DNA\u202f&amp;gt;\u202f500\u202fIU\/mL, and 43 DNA-low, IgG-positive controls, defined as HCMV DNA\u202f&amp;lt;\u202f500\u202fIU\/mL with HCMV IgG positivity and IgM negativity. Eight HCMV miRNAs were quantified using stem-loop RT-qPCR. HCMV DNA was measured by qPCR. A longitudinal series of 30 samples from seven treated patients was analyzed exploratorily.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>TEM and NTA showed that the ExoQuick-derived preparations contained vesicle-like nanoparticles with round or cup-shaped morphology and particle-size distributions compatible with small EV-enriched preparations. Among the eight candidate HCMV miRNAs, hcmv-miR-US4-5p and hcmv-miR-US25-2-5p remained significantly increased in the HCMV DNAemia group after false-discovery-rate correction. Hcmv-miR-US25-1-3p and hcmv-miR-UL36 showed nominal increases but did not remain significant after correction. Exploratory ROC analyses showed modest AUC values of approximately 0.64\u20130.73, with sensitivities below 45%. Longitudinal patterns were heterogeneous among the seven treated patients.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Selected HCMV-encoded miRNAs, particularly hcmv-miR-US4-5p and hcmv-miR-US25-2-5p were increased in an ExoQuick-derived EV-enriched plasma particle fraction from patients with HCMV DNAemia. These findings suggest potential exploratory auxiliary biomarker value, but definitive assignment to EV-encapsulated cargo and their utility for disease monitoring require further validation using EV-marker analysis, nuclease\/protease protection assays, broader miRNA profiling, and independent validation cohorts are required.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2026.1913023","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,24]],"date-time":"2026-09-24T05:44:01Z","timestamp":1790228641000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["HCMV-encoded miRNAs in an EV-enriched plasma particle fraction as candidate biomarkers of HCMV DNAemia"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Wanqing","family":"Zhou","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Nanjing University","place":["Nanjing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dongmei","family":"Niu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine, Nanjing Hospital of Chinese Medicine Affiliated to Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine","place":["Nanjing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hui","family":"Xie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Nanjing University","place":["Nanjing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shuo","family":"Gao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Nanjing University","place":["Nanjing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chunni","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Nanjing University School of Medicine, Jinling Hospital, Nanjing University","place":["Nanjing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Han","family":"Shen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Nanjing University","place":["Nanjing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Cheng","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine, Nanjing Hospital of Chinese Medicine Affiliated to Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine","place":["Nanjing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e70060","DOI":"10.1002\/jev2.70060","article-title":"Nano-flow cytometry-guided discrimination and separation of human cytomegalovirus virions and extracellular vesicles","volume":"14","author":"Bokun","year":"2025","journal-title":"J. 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