Advances in the Study of Chronic Active Epstein-Barr Virus Infection: Clinical Features Under the 2016 WHO Classification and Mechanisms of Development

Hydroa vacciniforme-like lymphoproliferative disorder: A study of clinicopathology and whole-exome sequencing in Chinese patients

BACKGROUND

Hydroa vacciniforme-like lymphoproliferative disorder (HVLPD) encompasses a rare group of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated lymphoproliferative diseases.

OBJECTIVE

To define the clinical and pathologic characteristics of HVLPD and to identify mutant genes that may be related to the development of HVLPD.

METHODS

Clinical data and archived formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue were obtained from 19 patients. Specimens were analyzed by immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization to detect EBV-encoded RNA (EBER1/2) and for T cell receptor (TCR) gene rearrangements. Whole-exome sequencing (WES) analysis was also performed in this study.

RESULTS

Thirteen patients survived between 3-58 months (median, 21 months) during the follow-up. Six patients who were almost adults (>15 years old) and died of the disease presented with facial edema. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels were elevated, and the TCR gene rearrangement test was positive more frequently in the patients who died. Compared with Chinese patients in a similar previous report, our patients had significantly higher proliferation (in all cases, the Ki-67 index was greater than 10 %) and a more aggressive clinical course. Moreover, after WES and Sanger verification, STAT3, IKBKB, ELF3, CHD7, KMT2D, ELK1, RARB and HPGDS were screened out in our patients.

CONCLUSIONS

HVLPD refers to a heterogeneous group of cutaneous lymphoproliferative diseases with different clinical and pathological features that affect patient outcomes. Gene mutations may be correlated with the development of HVLPD, and our study may provide new therapeutic targets for HVLPD.

Reactivation of Epstein-Barr Virus Hepatitis in T/Natural Killer (NK) Cells Mimicking Liver T/NK-Cell Lymphoma

Diagnosis of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated hepatitis, chronic active EBV infection, and EBV-associated lymphoproliferative diseases, is always challenging due to the overlapping symptoms and lack of diagnostic criteria. We report such a case of a 40-year-old man with unremarkable past medical history. He presented with fever of unknown origin for 1 month with jaundice for 2 days. Physical exams were unremarkable with body temperature at 98.6 °F. His liver function tests were elevated with alanine transaminase (ALT) 559 U/L, aspartate transaminase (AST) 892 U/L, alkaline phosphatase 319 U/L and total bilirubin 4.4 mg/dL. Computed tomography of his chest, abdomen and pelvis did not show lymphadenopathy or hepatosplenomegaly. A liver biopsy showed moderately acute hepatitis with hemophagocytosis, positive Epstein-Barr virus encoding RNA (EBER) in situ hybridization in CD3 and CD4-positive T cells and CD56-positive natural killer (NK) cells. CD20 was negative. The pathology diagnosis was consistent with reactivation of EBV hepatitis but NK-cell lymphoma needs to be excluded. Steatohepatitis with mild activity was present. His blood EBV DNA was 846,000 copies/mL and continued to increase to 2,000,000 copies/mL. Flow cytometric analysis of his bone marrow revealed an increased NK-cell activity but no T/NK-cell lymphoma was identified. Initial treatment with rituxan, etoposide and/or ruxolitinib/acyclovir failed or only had limited effect. However, subsequent valganciclovir greatly improved his conditions. In his 3 months follow-up, the patient was doing well with almost normal liver function tests except mildly elevated ALT (95 U/L) that was due to mild steatohepatitis. EBV DNA PCR was 2,009 copies/mL. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first documented case with reactivation of EBV hepatitis mimicking NK-cell lymphoma in the English literature. With appropriate anti-EBV viral treatments, the patient eventually became asymptomatic and was able to return to his routine life.

Chronic Active Epstein-Barr Virus Infection of T/NK-Cell Type Mimicking Classic Hodgkin Lymphoma: Clinicopathologic and Genetic Features of 8 Cases Supporting a Variant With "Hodgkin/Reed-Sternberg-like" Cells of NK Phenotype

Chronic active Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection of T-cell and NK-cell type, systemic form (CAEBV-T/NK-S) is characterized by EBV T-cell and/or NK-cell proliferation with no changes suggesting malignancy. Therefore, when Hodgkin/Reed-Sternberg (HRS)-like cells are scattered in CAEBV-T/NK-S, it is more likely to be misdiagnosed as classic Hodgkin lymphoma. We encountered a case wherein the patient showed HRS-like cells with typical NK phenotype. Therefore, we further investigated 8 similar cases to provide clinicopathologic and genetic features and discuss their distinction from other related diseases. Clinically, all cases met the diagnostic criteria of CAEBV. Moreover, 4/8 patients had hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis. The median survival was 16 months (range, 5 to 35 mo). Pathologically, all lymph node samples had a remarkably similar morphology with scattered HRS-like cells surrounded by a mixture of small-sized lymphocytes, plasma cells, and macrophages that masqueraded classic Hodgkin lymphoma. Besides, erythrophagocytosis was detected in 4/11 samples. The HRS-like cells were positive for CD2, CD3p, CD30, CD56, GrB, and EBER-ISH, but negative for CD20, CD5, PAX-5, and LMP-1. The surrounding lymphocytes were mainly CD8 cytotoxic T cells, without obvious aberrant expression. In addition, all patients were polyclonal in the T-cell receptor γ rearrangement test. The harbored mutations were mainly in epigenetic modifiers, JAK-STAT signaling pathway, and apoptosis/cell cycle pathway, including SOCS1, DDX3X, and KMT2D, similar to other EBV-associated T/NK-cell lymphoproliferative disorders. Therefore, the evidence indicates that "HRS-like cells of NK phenotype" is a variant of CAEBV-T/NK-S. This study may raise awareness of such confounding CAEBV-T/N-S cases in clinical practice to avoid misdiagnosis and treatment delay.

Animal Models for Gammaherpesvirus Infections: Recent Development in the Analysis of Virus-Induced Pathogenesis

Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) is involved in the pathogenesis of various lymphomas and carcinomas, whereas Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) participates in the pathogenesis of endothelial sarcoma and lymphomas. EBV and KSHV are responsible for 120,000 and 44,000 annual new cases of cancer, respectively. Despite this clinical importance, no chemotherapies or vaccines have been developed for virus-specific treatment and prevention of these viruses. Humans are the only natural host for both EBV and KSHV, and only a limited species of laboratory animals are susceptible to their experimental infection; this strict host tropism has hampered the development of their animal models and thereby impeded the study of therapeutic and prophylactic strategies. To overcome this difficulty, three main approaches have been used to develop animal models for human gammaherpesvirus infections. The first is experimental infection of laboratory animals with EBV or KSHV. New-world non-human primates (NHPs) and rabbits have been mainly used in this approach. The second is experimental infection of laboratory animals with their own inherent gammaherpesviruses. NHPs and mice have been mainly used here. The third, a recent trend, employs experimental infection of EBV or KSHV or both to immunodeficient mice reconstituted with human immune system components (humanized mice). This review will discuss how these three approaches have been used to reproduce human clinical conditions associated with gammaherpesviruses and to analyze the mechanisms of their pathogenesis.

Chemotherapy Improved Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension in a Patient with Chronic-Active Epstein-Barr Virus Infection

Chronic-active Epstein-Barr virus infection (CAEBV) is a rare disease that can lead to pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). However, the treatment for CAEBV-associated PAH has not been established. We discuss a case of improved pulmonary hypertension after chemotherapy in a patient with CAEBV-associated PAH. A 44-year old man was admitted to our hospital because of an abnormal electrocardiogram and liver dysfunction detected by annual medical examination. Echocardiography showed a dilated right ventricle and an estimated right ventricular systolic pressure of 92 mmHg. Right heart catheterization revealed a mean pulmonary arterial pressure of 45 mmHg and pulmonary vascular resistance of 9.8 Wood units. Laboratory examination showed granular lymphocytes and 91% natural killer cells in lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood. We diagnosed the patient as having CAEBV-associated PAH. After two cycles of chemotherapy without PAH-specific drugs, echocardiography showed improvement in the dilated right ventricle and an estimated right ventricular systolic pressure of 59 mmHg. Right heart catheterization revealed a mean pulmonary arterial pressure of 27 mmHg and pulmonary vascular resistance of 2.4 Wood units. Chemotherapy may improve pulmonary hypertension in patients with CAEBV-associated PAH.

Chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infection with intrapulmonary shunting: A case report

Chronic active Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection (CAEBV) is a high-mortality form of EBV infection. However, chronic hypoxemia is rare in these patients. We herein reported a case of severe hypoxemia due to intrapulmonary shunting in CAEBV. A 17-year-old girl presented with fever, dyspnea, cyanosis, and hepatosplenomegaly. Laboratory tests showed mild liver dysfunction and high copy numbers of EBV-DNA in the peripheral blood. A left supratrochlear lymph node biopsy showed infiltration of highly proliferative T lymphocytes with positive EBV encoded small RNA by in situ hybridization. Technetium-99m-labeled macroaggregated albumin and contrast-enhanced echocardiography confirmed the existence of intrapulmonary shunting, which was probably related to hepatopulmonary syndrome. The final diagnosis was CAEBV with intrapulmonary shunting. The patient was treated with cyclosporine A, etoposide, and dexamethasone. Finally, the patient died of respiratory failure. Intrapulmonary shunting is a rare complication of CAEBV. Early recognition and exploring the cause of hypoxemia should be highlighted in patients with CAEBV.

Epstein-Barr virus and its association with disease - a review of relevance to general practice

BACKGROUND

General practitioners encounter the vast majority of patients with Epstein-Barr virus-related disease, i.e. infectious mononucleosis in children and adolescents. With the expanding knowledge regarding the multifaceted role of Epstein-Barr virus in both benign and malignant disease we chose to focus this review on Epstein-Barr virus-related conditions with relevance to the general practitioners. A PubMed and Google Scholar literature search was performed using PubMed's MeSH terms of relevance to Epstein-Barr virus/infectious mononucleosis in regard to complications and associated conditions.

MAIN TEXT

In the present review, these included three early complications; hepatitis, splenic rupture and airway compromise, as well as possible late conditions; lymphoproliferative cancers, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infection. This review thus highlights recent advances in the understanding of Epstein-Barr virus pathogenesis, focusing on management, acute complications, referral indications and potentially associated conditions.

CONCLUSIONS

Hepatitis is a common and self-limiting early complication to infectious mononucleosis and should be monitored with liver tests in more symptomatic cases. Splenic rupture is rare. Most cases are seen within 3 weeks after diagnosis of infectious mononucleosis and may occur spontaneously. There is no consensus on the safe return to physical activities, and ultrasonic assessment of spleen size may provide the best estimate of risk. Airway compromise due to tonsil enlargement is encountered in a minority of patients and should be treated with systemic corticosteroids during hospitalization. Association between lymphoproliferative cancers, especially Hodgkin lymphoma and Burkitt lymphoma, and infectious mononucleosis are well-established. Epstein-Barr virus infection/infectious mononucleosis as a risk factor for multiple sclerosis has been documented and may be linked to genetic susceptibility. Chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infection is rare. However, a general practitioner should be aware of this as a differential diagnosis in patients with persisting symptoms of infectious mononucleosis for more than 3 months.