The Role of Human Herpesvirus 8 Molecular Characterization in the Management of HIV Infected Patients Diagnosed with Malignancies Associated with Its Infection

Abstract

<p class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">Despite the</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US">progress</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US">has been reached with Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) research</span><span lang="EN-US">,</span><span lang="EN-US"> there are gaps in the knowledge of viral induced oncogenesis. The aim of the present study was to identify possible associations between HHV-8 subtypes, HHV-8 loads and clinical manifestations of HIV infected patients diagnosed with different malignancies associated with HHV-8 infection. Forty six HIV-1 infected individuals diagnosed with different HHV-8 associated diseases were studied [37 epidemic Kaposi</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span lang="EN-US">s sarcoma (KS), 3 pleural effusion lymphoma (PEL); 5 peripheral lymphadenopathies (PL); 1 Hodgkin’s lymphoma (HL); 1 non Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL)]. HHV-8 loads were determined by quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR) whilst HHV-8 subtypes were determined by open-reading frame (ORF)-K1 gen genotyping. HHV-8 subtypes B, A, C, A5 and E were exhibited by 31.8%, 23.4%, 19.1%, 17% and 8.5% of the studied patients, respectively. The median HHV-8 viral load did not differ between subtypes (p > 0.05) but HHV-8 viral loads were significantly higher in PEL than in epidemic KS lesion or lymph nodes (p</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US">= 0.04). Subtype B was detected in 60% of patients with B cell lymphoma (NHL, PEL and HL) whereas subtype E was only detected in patients with epidemic KS diagnosis. Our data suggest that HHV-8 DNA quantification instead of subtype identification could be used as a surrogate marker for monitoring its infection, not only in epidemic KS patients but also in HIV infected individuals with lymphoproliferative disorders.</span> </p

Detection of Human Herpes Virus 8 in Kaposi’s sarcoma tissues at the University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia

“…This study also demonstrated that HHV-8 DNA detection was high in the 21-40 age group and in male patients, with no statistical significance with regard to age and sex. Similar results were obtained in a study conducted in Germany in which HHV-8 DNA was mainly detected in the middle-aged group (p>0.05) and was mostly seen in males (p>0.05) than in females [ 37 ]. High HHV-8 detection in the middle aged group in the two studies may be attributable to the high HIV risk due to high risk behaviour in this age group [ 25 ].…”