How does parvovirus B19 DNA achieve lifelong persistence in human cells?

Parvovirus B19 (B19V), a ssDNA virus in the family Parvoviridae, is characterized by several properties that convey interest [1]. It is a pathogenic human virus with a selective tropism for erythroid progenitor cells (EPCs) in the bone marrow. It can be responsible for a wide range of clinical manifestations, from the asymptomatic or mild to the severe and in some cases life-threatening. It can establish a complex relationship with the immune system, whose capacity of controlling infection varies widely and can be critical to the development of pathological processes. It is characterized by a strict dependence on the cellular environment for its replication, so that the target cell types and their differentiation stages condition the diverse outcomes of infection. As a general scheme, it is now accepted that following a primary infection the virus can establish persistence in many tissues, probably lifelong. Questions then arise about the characteristics of this long-term relationship, what form it can assume, whether the virus maintains its full biological potential and what consequences, if any, this relationship can have on the host. At the state of our research, more questions are open than knowledge established.