Junin virus replication in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with Argentine haemorrhagic fever.

To study the relationship of Junin virus (JV) to populations of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from patients with Argentine Haemorrhagic Fever (AHF), blood samples were obtained during the acute period of disease and cultured as total, adherent, and non-adherent cell populations. JV was sequentially sought in these cell populations by using an Infectious Centre (IC) assay, whereas free JV in the supernatants was evaluated by plaque formation. IC were obtained in cultures of total PBMC from 8 out of 19 patients. Maximum numbers of IC showed high variation among patients, ranging from 3 to 410 IC per 10(6) viable PBMC. In contrast, IC were sporadically demonstrated in the non-adherent cell population. The release of JV into culture supernatants was detected only in total PBMC cultures, thus in the presence of macrophages. These results demonstrate that circulating monocytes (macrophages) are targets for JV replication contributing to the viral spread in the acute phase of AHF.