Detection of the Predominant Strain of Epstein-Barr Virus in Systemic Autoimmune and Thalassemia Patients

Abstract

EBV, is a member of the herpesvirus family and one of the most common human viruses, Epidemiological data suggest that EBV is associated with polytransfused blood βthalassemia and several autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. We examined the presence of IgM antibodies against EBV in serum of 35 Thalassemic patients, 75 autoimmune patients among as 35 rheumatoid arthritis patients, 20 Systemic lupus erythrematosus and 20 autoimmune hypothyroid diseases, and 20 healthy controls by ELISA assay then detected the predominant strain in positive samples. The results show that the highest EBV infection percent was in SLE 15% whilst the lowest infection percent was in Thalassemia 5.7%., and according to gender, the results showed that the highest infection percentage recorded in females with rheumatoid arthritis 30 %, whilst the infection does not appear in males with rheumatoid arthritis and autoimmune thyroid disease and females of thalassemia patients. On the other hand, this study reveals that EBV-1 is the predominant strain in autoimmune diseases and thalassemia in Iraq.

Epstein-Barr Virus Infection in Thalassemia Patients Related to Blood Group in Mosul / Iraq

“…Over the past 20 years, Growing studies have suggested that the antigens in the blood group can serve as receptors for parasites, bacteria and viruses (16,17) .We tried to study the relationship between ABO blood groups and EBV infection in patients with thalassemia (18,19) Distribution of thalassemia patients ' blood groups in our sample(30.14% A + , 21.92% O + , 17.8% B + , 26.02% AB + , 2.74 %O -, and 1.37% AB -) which differs with (20) who documented distribution of blood groups of the thalassemic patients in Turkey as (12.3% B+, 33.5% O+, 45.1% A+, 5.2% AB+, 3.9% A-, 1.9% B-and 4.5 %O-,) (21) who reported the blood groups distribution among the patients as(41.6 % O, 24.7% A, 26.7% B and 7% AB).…”

“…Immunoblot (Euroline) for EBV Consists of a number of markers that distinguish EBV infection from chronic, latent infection and latent infection back to service. The presence of VCA IgM,VCA IgG, and EA in the absence of EBNA-1 IgG suggests an acute infection, whilethe presence of EBNA-1 IgGand VCA IgG in the absence of VCA IgM is indicative of past infection (18,27) .Normally, VCA IgM occurs concurrently with VCA IgG antibodies, often they completely disappear in a few months, while patients have VCA IgG positive For the remainder of their lives (28) .Typically, EBNA-1 IgG cannotdetectethrower the first 3 to 4 weeks following Clinical symptoms onset (29) and The pattern of isolated VCA IgG without VCA IgM or EBNA-1 IgG has been widely documented, particularly in the case of immunosuppression, because VCA IgG antibodies remain but EBNA-1 IgG antibodies that disappear (30) , Whereas EBNA-1 IgG without VCA IgG is generally considered to be unplausible (31) . but, Many immunoblotting studies have found that (2%) of subjects with prior infections can be negative for VCA IgG anti-p23 or anti-p18 (30) and although rare, this pattern can be seen in standard laboratory tests and can account for about (1.7%) of all EBNA-1 IgG-positive samples.…”