Seroprevalence and Biomarkers Detection of Human Herpes Virus (HHV-8) in Patients with Kaposi Sarcoma

Abstract

Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) represents the most prevalent malignancy among untreated HIV-positive individuals. Herpesvirus linked with Kaposi's sarcoma (KSHV; also termed as human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8)). In this study, blood samples were collected from 120 individuals, 60 of them had HHV-8 infection with kaposi sarcoma and 60 persons as apparently healthy control. These patients attended Baghdad Teaching Hospital from the period of 15th February 2021 to 15th January 2022. Infections are seen to be more prevalent in the age group of 25-49 years when compared to other groups. The distribution of the biomarkers confirmed that 50, 25 and 80% of the 20 infected patients were positive for Ca19.9, Ca125 and Ca15.3 respectively. The Ca19.9, Ca125, and Ca15.3 biomarkers all produced good results in patients with Human Herpes Virus 8 (HHV-8) infections, leading us to the conclusion that these biomarkers gave favorable results. All of the PCR products showed a positive amplification at 434bp. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed the belongingness to the HHV strain. Further, this could lead to the development of a novel molecular diagnostic tool.