{"doi":"10.1002/epi4.12531","title":"Human herpesvirus 6 and epilepsy","abstract":"We investigated the association between human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) and mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS) in 87 patients who had surgery for drug-resistant epilepsy. Fifty-four had MTS, 22 focal cortical dysplasia (FCD), four tumors, three vascular malformations, and three a history of encephalitis. We extracted DNA from fresh brain tissue immediately after surgery and performed viral detection with quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or digital droplet PCR specific for HHV-6A and HHV-6B. Tissue was studied with standard clinical techniques, including hematoxylin and eosin, glial fibrillary acidic protein, and NeuN stains. Twenty-nine of 54 patients with MTS, six of 23 with focal cortical dysplasia (FCD), and one of three with a history of encephalitis were positive for HHV-6 (P < .02). Febrile seizure history was not associated with HHV-6 detection. Patients with MTS had significantly lower seizure onset age than those with other pathologies. Thirteen patients had positron emission tomography with [11C]PBR28, a marker for reactive astrocytes and activated microglia; there was a trend for HHV-6-positive patients to have higher binding in their seizure foci, suggesting inflammation. Our study supports a potential role for HHV-6 in the etiology of MTS.","journal":"Epilepsia Open","year":2021,"id":192153,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":12,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9694,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":541283,"name":"Emily Leibovitch","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":347275,"name":"Bridgette Jeanne Billioux","orcid":"0000-0003-4208-7100","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":282982,"name":"Sara K. Inati","orcid":"0000-0002-7587-5085","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":265853,"name":"Kareem A. Zaghloul","orcid":"0000-0001-8575-3578","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":331838,"name":"John D. Heiss","orcid":"0000-0002-3890-0165","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":52287,"name":"William D. Gaillard","orcid":"0000-0001-5709-0033","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":247665,"name":"Steven Jacobson","orcid":"0000-0003-3127-1287","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337336,"name":"William H. Theodore","orcid":"0000-0002-4669-5747","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":25,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:49:39.281850Z","pmid":"34324277","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}