Broccolo F, Tassan Din C, Viganò MG, Rutigliano T, Esposito S, Lusso P, Tambussi G, Malnati MS. HHV-8 DNA replication correlates with the clinical status in AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma.
J Clin Virol 2016;
78:47-52. [PMID:
26985593 DOI:
10.1016/j.jcv.2016.02.019]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2015] [Revised: 02/08/2016] [Accepted: 02/17/2016] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
The value of plasma levels of human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) DNA as a marker of clinical status in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome-related Kaposi's sarcoma (AIDS-KS) remains to be elucidated.
OBJECTIVES
To investigate the relationship between the plasma HHV-8 DNA viral load and the clinical status of AIDS-KS.
STUDY DESIGN
A total of 378 blood samples were obtained from 62 patients with AIDS-KS followed longitudinally. All patients received antiretroviral therapy (ART) or anti-neoplastic therapy. The patients were divided into four groups according to their clinical status: onset disease (OD), progressive disease (PD), stable or partial remission (S/PR) and complete remission (CR).
RESULTS
Plasma HHV-8 DNAaemia was detected in all samples obtained from patients with OD or PD (100%); in contrast, HHV-8 DNAaemia was found only in a minority of patients with CR (8%) and was invariably undetectable in patients with stable CR. HHV-8 DNA detection in plasma was strongly associated with an unfavourable outcome (odds ratio=231.9; p<0.0001). Conversely, neither the HIV-1 viral load nor peripheral CD4(+) T-cell counts were associated with the KS clinical status, though both parameters did affect HHV-8 DNAaemia levels (p<0.0001). Multivariate analysis confirmed that HHV-8 DNAaemia was strongly and independently correlated with both clinical status (p<0.05) and HIV-1 plasma viraemia (p=0.027).
CONCLUSIONS
The strong association of plasma HHV-8 DNAaemia with onset or progressive disease is compatible with an active role of replicating virus in clinically active AIDS-KS. An accurate evaluation of the plasma HHV-8 load might be useful for monitoring AIDS-KS under antiretroviral or antineoplastic therapy.
Collapse