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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, December 2001, p. 4269-4273, Vol. 39, No. 12
0095-1137/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.12.4269-4273.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Viral Load of Human Herpesvirus 8 in Peripheral Blood of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Patients with Kaposi's Sarcoma

Rosamaria Tedeschi,1,2,* Malin Enbom,3 Ettore Bidoli,4 Annika Linde,3 Paolo De Paoli,2 and Joakim Dillner1,5

The Microbiology and Tumor Biology Center1 and Swedish Institute for Infectious Diseases Control,3 Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, and Department of Medical Microbiology, MAS University Hospital, Malmö,5 Sweden, and Microbiology-Immunology and Virology Department2 and Epidemiology Unit,4 Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, IRCCS, Aviano, Italy

Received 25 June 2001/Returned for modification 21 July 2001/Accepted 10 September 2001

Viral load is an important marker of activity of viral diseases for a number of viruses. We wished to evaluate whether the viral load of human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) in peripheral blood was a consistent feature of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) patients and whether the viral load correlated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) RNA levels, CD4 counts, and/or the HHV-8 seroreactivity. Fifty-four consecutive plasma samples from 14 patients with KS were evaluated for HHV-8 viral load by quantitative real-time PCR. Samples were analyzed at the start of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and at different intervals during treatments. The median HHV-8 DNA load before HAART treatment was 8,998 (ranging from 170 to 40,100) copies/ml and 12,270 (ranging from 40 to 142,575) copies/ml during HAART. There were both increasing and decreasing trends. There was an association between HHV-8 DNA and HIV RNA viral loads (odds ratio [OR] = 5.40; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.54 to 18.98) and between HHV-8 viral load and CD4 cell counts (OR = 7.24; 95% CI, 1.30 to 40.35). High HHV-8 viral load was also correlated with the titers of antibodies to the lytic HHV-8 antigen detected with immunofluorescence (P < 0.01), but not with antibodies to the latent HHV-8 antigen. In conclusion, we found that HHV-8 viremia in KS is associated with HIV viral load, CD4 cell counts, and lytic HHV-8 serological reactivity. HHV-8 viral load monitored by real time PCR might be useful for determination HHV-8 viral load during the follow-up of KS patients.


* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Microbiology-Immunology and Virology Department, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, IRCCS, Aviano, Italy. Phone: 39-0434-659421. Fax: 39-0434-659402. E-mail: rtedeschi{at}cro.it.


Journal of Clinical Microbiology, December 2001, p. 4269-4273, Vol. 39, No. 12
0095-1137/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.12.4269-4273.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.



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Copyright © 2001 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.