Open AccessDetection of Human Herpesvirus 8 DNA Sequences in Tissues and Bodily Fluids
Author(s) -
Jeffrey R. LaDuca,
Jayne Love,
Lynn Abbott,
Syamalima Dube,
Alvin E. FriedmanKien,
Bernard J. Poiesz
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
the journal of infectious diseases
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.69
H-Index - 252
eISSN - 1537-6613
pISSN - 0022-1899
DOI - 10.1086/314514
Subject(s) - saliva , semen , peripheral blood mononuclear cell , polymerase chain reaction , virology , sexual transmission , virus , biology , real time polymerase chain reaction , immunology , herpesviridae , nested polymerase chain reaction , gammaherpesvirinae , microbiology and biotechnology , viral disease , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , gene , in vitro , genetics , biochemistry , microbicide
Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) has been proposed as a sexually transmitted etiologic agent of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). In this study, by use of a sensitive polymerase chain reaction assay, HHV-8 DNA was detected in the skin lesions (92%), normal skin (23%), peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) (46%), plasma (7%), saliva (37%), and semen (12%) but not stool samples from KS patients. The average number of HHV-8 copies per microgram of positive target DNA was 64, 000, 9000, 40, 33,000, and 300 for skin, PBMC, plasma, saliva, and semen samples, respectively. Only 1 non-KS donor sample, of saliva, was positive for HHV-8. Sequencing showed 5% divergence among HHV-8 strains. The data suggest that saliva may be more important than semen or stool in the sexual transmission of HHV-8. The relatively high prevalence of HHV-8 in PBMC raises the question as to why there is no evidence for bloodborne virus transmission.
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